View source for Huckster

{{Short description|Vendor, usually with biased information and pushy or showy tactics}}
{{hatnote|A Huckster is also a [[character class]] in the [[role-playing game]] ''[[Deadlands]]''.}}
{{for|the Web-based shopping tool|Hukkster}}

[[File:The Irish sketch-book (1845) (14594583307).jpg|thumb|Women huckstering from ''The Irish Sketch-Book'', 1845]]

A '''huckster''' is anyone who sells something or serves biased interests, using pushy or showy tactics. Historically, it meant any type of [[peddler]] or [[vendor]], but over time it has assumed [[pejorative]] connotations.

==Etymology==
The original meaning of huckster is a person who sells small articles, either [[door-to-door]] or from a stall or small store, like a [[peddler]] or [[hawker (trade)|hawker]]. The term probably derives from the [[Middle English]] {{lang|enm|hucc}}, meaning "to haggle".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.thefreedictionary.com/huckster |title=huckster |website=The Free Dictionary}}</ref> The word was in use circa [[1200s (decade)|1200]] as "''huccsteress''". During the [[Middle Ages|medieval period]], the word assumed the feminine word ending "''ster''" as in huck''ster'', reflecting the fact that most hucksters were women.<ref>Davis, J., ''Medieval Market Morality: Life, Law and Ethics in the English Marketplace, 1200–1500'', Cambridge University Press, 2012, p.&nbsp;7.</ref> The word assumed various spellings at different times: ''hukkerye'', ''hukrie'', ''hockerye'', ''huckerstrye'' or ''hoxterye''. The word was still in use in [[England]] in the [[1840s]], when it appeared as a [[Black market|black-market]] occupation. It is related to the [[Middle Dutch]] {{lang|dum|hokester, hoekster}}, and the [[Middle Low German]] {{lang|gml|höker}}, but appears earlier than any of these.<ref>''[[Oxford English Dictionary]]'', 2nd ed. (1989), "Huckster, ''n.''"</ref> In the [[United States]], a connotation of trickery developed{{snd}} the huckster might trick others into buying cheap [[Counterfeit|imitation products]] as if they were the real thing.

==Other meanings==
[[File:A French itinerant medicine vendor on stage selling his ware Wellcome L0032279.jpg|thumb|Itinerant medicine salesmen were often known as "hucksters"]]

The term "huckster" was used in different ways across Europe and later ended up taking on different meanings at different times.

===In Scotland===

In [[Scotland]], the term "huckster" referred to a person, usually a woman, who bought goods, watered them down, and resold them in tiny quantity to others who were too poor to buy quality products available at market value.{{Citation needed|date=December 2011}} These items tended to be in the poorer quality range, since economy was paramount. Scots [[burgh]]s often felt the need to control hucksters because they operated without a stall, on the economic fringes. In particular, they were subject to accusations of forestalling, in this case, the practice of buying goods wholesale, "before the stall" and therefore before tax was paid.<ref>{{Cite book |doi=10.23943/princeton/9780691176864.003.0003 |chapter=Worked as a Huckster |title=American Misfits and the Making of Middle-Class Respectability |year=2017 |last1=Wuthnow |first1=Robert |isbn=9780691176864 }}</ref>

===In England and Europe===

In England and Europe during the medieval period, the term "huckster" was synonymous with "peddler."<ref>{{Cite web |title=Huckster and Peddler are synonyms |url=https://thesaurus.plus/related/huckster/peddler |access-date=2022-11-19 |website=thesaurus.plus |language=english}}</ref><ref>{{Citation |title=huckster |date=2022-07-15 |url=https://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=huckster&oldid=67953973 |work=Wiktionary |language=en |access-date=2022-11-19}}</ref> Hucksters and peddlers belonged to a broad group of [[reseller]]s who purchased surplus stocks from weekly provincial markets and [[Fair|fairs]] and then resold them at larger daily markets or engaged in door-to-door selling.

As time passed, the distinction between hucksters and peddlers became more pronounced. During the medieval period, the term "huckster" came to refer to market-based food vendors, while peddlers referred to itinerant vendors of a wide range of merchandise. Hucksters were often women who dealt in low-priced goods such as meat, poultry, dairy, bread and baked goods, including pies and pastries. They sourced raw materials from their own holdings or purchased goods from other sellers and carried their products to the market place in baskets or [[Head-carrying|on their heads]]. These women either lived in the [[market town]] or travelled into the market place from the surrounding area. Hucksters were at the bottom of the market [[hierarchy]], both in terms of wealth and status, since they made only small returns.<ref>Davis, J., ''Medieval Market Morality: Life, Law and Ethics in the English Marketplace, 1200–1500'', Cambridge University Press, 2012, pp.&nbsp;7–8.</ref>

[[Luca Clerici]] has made a detailed analysis of [[Vicenza]]’s food market during the sixteenth century. He found that there were many different types of reseller operating out of the markets. For example, in the dairy trade, cheese and butter was sold by the members of two craft guilds (i.e., [[cheesemongers]] who were shopkeepers) and that of the so-called "resellers" (hucksters selling a wide range of foodstuffs), and by other sellers who were not enrolled in any guild. Cheesemongers’ shops were situated at the town hall and were notably lucrative. Resellers and peddlers increased the number of sellers, thus increasing competition, to the benefit of consumers. Direct sellers, who brought produce from the surrounding countryside, sold their wares through the central market place and priced their goods at considerably lower rates than cheesemongers.<ref>Clerici, L., "Le prix du bien commun. Taxation des prix et approvisionnement urbain (Vicence, XVIe–XVIIe siècle)" [The price of the common good. Official prices and urban provisioning in sixteenth and seventeenth century Vicenza] in I prezzi delle cose nell’età preindustriale / ''The Prices of Things in Pre-Industrial Times'', [forthcoming], Firenze University Press, 2017.</ref>

===In 20th-century Philadelphia===

[[File:Swindlers, Hucksters and Snake Oil Salesman - Hype and Hope Marketing Anti-Aging Products to Seniors.pdf|thumb|Hearing Before the Special Committee on Aging. [[United States Senate]], [[107th United States Congress]]. First Session. Washington, D.C. Serial No.&nbsp;107-14.]]
{{Tone|section|date=October 2022}}
In [[Philadelphia]], in the early 1900s, hucksters were seen as primarily men who came around with carts, horse or hand-drawn, of fresh produce. They made their presence known by crying out loud what they had to offer. In earlier Philadelphia dialect, to say "like a huckster" meant to be too loud in one's speech.<ref>{{Cite web |title=1923 International Huckster |url=https://www.classicautomall.com/vehicles/405/1923-international-huckster |access-date=2022-11-19 |website=www.classicautomall.com |language=en-US}}</ref>

==In literature and popular culture ==

The story "[[The Goblin and the Grocer]]" by [[Hans Christian Andersen]] implies 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]]. Although the story has been mistakenly called "The Goblin and the Huckster", it has nothing to do with that term (pejoratively). The Grocer, 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 Grocer'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.<ref>{{cite book |last=Lang |first=Andrew |author-link=Andrew Lang |title=The Pink Fairy Book |year=1889 |url=http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/lfb/pi/pifb05.htm |website=www.sacred-texts.com}}</ref>

In the novel "[[The Black Stallion]]" by [[Walter Farley]], the supporting character Tony is described as a huckster, in the sense that he works as a vegetable salesman in [[New York City]]'s smaller streets, selling from a horse-drawn cart. 

In [[science fiction fandom]], the term "huckster" is used non-[[pejorative]]ly to designate dealers in [[science fiction]]–related books, magazines and paraphernalia,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://fanac.org/Fannish_Reference_Works/FandBook/FandBook.html |first=Donald |last=Franson |title=A Key to the Terminology of Science Fiction Fandom |work= National Fantasy Fan Federation |year=1962}}</ref> particularly those who deal at [[science fiction conventions]].

In the song "There Only Was One Choice" by [[Harry Chapin]] one line refers to huckster of belief.

In the 2022 song “[[Sweet Nothing (Taylor Swift song)|Sweet Nothing]]” by [[Taylor Swift]], she refers to “smooth-talking hucksters.”

==Popular references==
{{wiktionary}}
* ''[[The Hucksters]]'' (1947), an American film starring [[Clark Gable]] as a slick [[Madison Avenue#Advertising industry|Madison Avenue]] advertiser.

==See also ==

* [[Arabber]]
* [[Costermonger]]
* [[Direct sales]]
* [[Hawker (trade)]]
* [[History of marketing]]
* [[Market (place)]]
* [[Market town]]
* [[Merchant]]
* [[Peddler]] 
* [[Personal selling]]
* [[Quackery]]
* [[Retail]]
* [[Street vendor]]
{{clear}}

==References==
{{reflist}}

[[Category:Sales occupations]]
[[Category:Science fiction fandom]]