huckster

Dictionary: huck·ster (hŭk'stər) pronunciation

One who sells wares or provisions in the street; a peddler or hawker.
One who uses aggressive, showy, and sometimes devious methods to promote or sell a product.
Informal. One who writes advertising copy, especially for radio or television.

v., -stered, -ster·ing, -sters.

v.tr.

To sell; peddle.
To promote or attempt to sell (a commercial product, for example) in an overaggressive or showy manner.
To haggle over; deal in.

v.intr.
To engage in haggling.

[Middle English, probably of Low German origin, akin to Middle Dutch hokester.]

hucksterism huck'ster·ism n.

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Business Dictionary: Huckster

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Seller of a good or service who will try to sell anything by making misleading promises and assurances. An example is a peddler who will make any kind of guarantee to a tourist to make the sale.

Thesaurus: huckster

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verb

To travel about selling goods: hawk, peddle, vend. See transactions.
To argue about the terms, as of a sale: bargain, dicker, haggle, higgle, negotiate, palter. See agree/disagree.

Wikipedia: Huckster

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This article needs additional citations for verification.
Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (February 2008)

A Huckster is also a character class in the role-playing game Deadlands.

A huckster is a seller of small articles, usually of cheap or shoddy quality, or one engaged in haggling or making petty bargains, that is, a certain type of peddler or hawker.

In Scotland, the term huckster referred to a person, usually a woman, who bought goods and resold them in tiny quantity to others who were too poor to buy in quantities available at market. The goods were of no worse quality, though tended to be in the poorer quality range since economy was paramount. Scots burghs often felt the need to control hucksters because they operated without a stall, on the economic fringes. In particular, they were subject of accusations of forestalling, in this case the practice of buying goods wholesale, "before the stall" and therefore before tax was paid.^{[citation needed]}

The word was in use circa 1200 (as "huccsteress") and was spelled hukkerye, hukrie, hockerye, huckerstrye or hoxterye at one time or another. The word was still in use in England in the 1840's, when it appeared as an occupation in census returns. The word is related to the Middle Dutch hokester, hoekster and the Middle Low German hoker, but appears earlier than any of these.^[1]

The story 'The Goblin and the Huckster' by Hans Christian Andersen relates that human nature is attracted to a state of happiness as represented by poetry and to sensual pleasure as represented by jam and butter at Christmas. The huckster, through his haggling and bargaining, is seen as industrious because he possesses the jam and butter (sensual pleasure) and the student is seen as poor but happy because he appreciates the beauty of poetry above all else. Meanwhile, the huckster's talkative wife and the cask in which are stored old newspapers both have plenty of authoritative knowledge to share but are paid little attention compared to the primal desires of humankind, which constantly compete for (the goblin's) attention.^{[citation needed]}

In science fiction fandom, the term "huckster" is used non-pejoratively to designate dealers in science fiction-related books, magazines and paraphernalia,^[2] particularly those who deal at science fiction conventions.

Look up huckster in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

References

Brown, Yvonne Galloway, and Ferguson, Rona, eds, (2002) Twisted Sisters: Women, Crime and Deviance in Scotland Since 1400, Tuckwell Press
Sanderson, Margaret H.B. (2002) A Kindly Place?: Living is Sixteenth-Century Scotland, Tuckwell Press

^ Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed. (1989), "Huckster, n."
^ http://fanac.org/Fannish_Reference_Works/FandBook/FandBook.html Donald Franson, "A Key to the Terminology of Science Fiction Fandom"; National Fantasy Fan Federation, 1962.

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Translations: Huckster

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Dansk (Danish)
n. - gadehandler, høker, kræmmer
v. tr. - sælge (på gaden)
v. intr. - være gadehandler, være kræmmer

Nederlands (Dutch)
reclameschrijver, sjacheraar, straatventer, kleinhandelaar, venten, pingelen, vervalsen, reclame maken voor

Français (French)
n. - (US) camelot, bonimenteur (péj), escroc (péj)
v. tr. - bonimenter, colporter
v. intr. - vendre de façon agressive

Deutsch (German)
n. - Straßenhändler, Werbefachmann
v. - hausieren, schachern

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - γυρολόγος, πραματευτής

Italiano (Italian)
venditore ambulante, imbonitore

Português (Portuguese)
n. - mascate (m), publicitário (m) (gír.) (EUA)

Русский (Russian)
лавочник, торговаться

Español (Spanish)
n. - vendedor ambulante
v. tr. - vender chucherías
v. intr. - vender chucherías

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - påträngande försäljare, skojare, reklamman (i radio o TV), månglare

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
小商人, 卑鄙者, 叫卖的小贩, 贩卖, 还价, 叫卖, 讨价还价

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 小商人, 卑鄙者, 叫賣的小販
v. tr. - 販賣, 還價, 叫賣
v. intr. - 討價還價

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 도붓장수, 광고업자, 광고작가, 장사치
v. tr. - 외치며 팔다, ~의 값을 깎다, 품질을 떨어뜨리다
v. intr. - 외치며 팔다, 품질을 떨어 뜨리다, 값을 깎다, 품질을 떨어뜨리다

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 呼び売り商人, 行商人, 広告屋
v. - 呼び売りする, 値切る

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) بائع متجول, وكيل اعلانات وبخاصه اذاعيه وتلفزيونيه‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮רוכל, רודף-בצע, פרסומאי‬
v. tr. - ‮זייף‬
v. intr. - ‮עמד על המקח‬

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	huckstress
	hucksterer
	huxter

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		Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. Read more
		Business Dictionary. Dictionary of Business Terms. Copyright © 2000 by Barron's Educational Series, Inc. All rights reserved. Read more
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		Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Huckster". Read more
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