The word cheap is hiding inside an old job title.

A chapman is a merchant or trader, and in Britain a peddler. The word comes from Old English ceap, meaning trade, and that same root gave us cheap. Shakespeare gives it to the Princess in Love's Labor's Lost, who is tired of flattery: "Beauty is bought by judgment of the eye, / Not uttered by base sale of chapmen's tongues."

Next time a friend haggles you down at the booth: "I am a chapman, not a cheap man."

Read the full story in the Faire Tidings Crier on Substack, Issue 24, What the Price Tag Carries: fairetidingscrier.substack.com/p/what-the-price-tag-carries

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Renaissance Faire Word of the Week is a production of the Faire Tidings Crier, the free weekly newsletter for the US Renaissance faire circuit.

Sources

Folger Shakespeare Library, Love's Labor's Lost 2.1: folger.edu/explore/shakespeares-works/loves-labors-lost/read/2/1

Merriam-Webster, "chapman": merriam-webster.com/dictionary/chapman

Merriam-Webster, "cheap": merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cheap

Narrated with an AI voice. Written and fact-checked by the Faire Tidings Crier. Tidings travel.