Now rare exc. Hist. Forms and etym.: see WOOD sb.1 and MONGER sb. A dealer in wood; a timber-merchant, or (esp.) a seller of wood for fuel.
1260–1. Cal. Wills Crt. Husting, Lond., I. (1889), 8. Robert le Wudemongere. Ibid. (1372), II. 147. William Wodemongere.
1464. Rolls of Parlt., V. 567/2. Carpenters, Woodemongers and Colemakers.
1567. in Archaeologia, XXXVI. 51. Paide to Mr. Fermer, wodemonger, for a M and iii qrs. of billetts,… xviij s. viij d.
1599. Shaks., Hen. V., V. i. 69. If I own you any thing, I will pay you in Cudgels, you shall be a Woodmonger.
1609. Dekker, Ravens Alm., Wks. (Grosart), IV. 186. Winter,… the friend to none but Colliers and Woodmongers.
1632. Massinger, City Madam, II. i. Though The dishes were raised one upon another, As woodmongers do billets.
1667. Lond. Gaz., No. 215/4. The many great abuses committed by the Company of Woodmongers in the Sale … of Fuel.
1720. Strype, Stow’s Surv., II. VI. v. 76/1. Two Woodmongers Wharfs for the Sale of Fuel.
1722. De Foe, Plague (1754), 254. Vessels, such as the Wood-mongers, that is the Wharf Keepers, or Coal-Sellers furnished.
1821. Scott, Kenilw., iii. These sturdy oaks had long since become the property of some honest woodmonger.
1908. W. G. Collingwood, Scandinavian Britain, 111. ‘Six score to the hundred’ is still familiar to Lake District gardeners and wood-mongers.
