Wednesday, May 17, 2023

Chaffer vs haggle

The obsolete word "chaffer," which comes from the origin of "journey to a bargain," has been superseded by the word "haggle" whose origin means to "hew," "hack," "mangle," or whittle down. 
I rather like the more poetic origin of "chaffer." The "ngram" (frequency of usage) of them both shows rather neatly how one replaced the other. 

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