"bummarees" Definition

Definitions for the word "bummarees" from multiple English dictionaries.

1. slang
a term given to a class of speculating salesmen at Billingsgate market, not recognised as such by the trade, but who get a living by buying large quantities of fish from the salesmen and re-selling them to smaller buyers. The word has been used in the statutes and bye-laws of the market for upwards of 200 years. It has been variously derived. Some persons think it may be from the _French_ BONNE MARÉE, good fresh fish! “Marée signifie toute sorte de poisson de mer qui n’est pas sale; bonne marée—_marée fraîche_, vendeur de marée.”—_Dict. de l’Acad. Franc._ The BUMMAREES are accused of many trade tricks. One of them is to blow up codfish with a pipe until they look double their actual size. Of course when the fish come to table they are flabby, sunken, and half dwindled away. In Norwich, to BUMMAREE one is to run up a score at a public-house just open, and is equivalent to “running into debt with one.” One of the advertisements issued by Hy. Robinson’s “Office,” over against Threadneedle Street, was this:— “Touching Advice from the OFFICE, you are desired to give and take notice as followeth:— “OF Monies to be taken up, or delivered on _Botto-maria_, commonly called _Bomarie_. “OF money to be put out or taken upon interest,” &c. —_The Publick Intelligencer_, numb. 17, 25th June, 1660.
Source: The Slang Dictionary, 1864

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