barrow boy

See also: barrow-boy

English

Alternative forms

• barrow-boy

Etymology

Compound of barrow +‎ boy. Attested since the 1930s in the sense of costermonger; the slang usage dates from the 1980s.

Pronunciation

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Noun

barrow boy (plural barrow boys)

1. (British) A boy or man who sells goods – especially fruit or vegetables – from a barrow; a costermonger.
   • 1948, "Is rhubarb a fruit?", The Listener, page 650:

     ...at a London magistrate's court a young coster — a barrow boy — was summoned before me for selling rhubarb without a licence.

   • 2021 March 10, Greg Morse, “Telling the railway's story on film”, in RAIL, number 926, page 48:

     Operation London Bridge, also from 1975, tells the story of the busy station's redevelopment. Cutting neatly from the barrow boys of Borough Market to an aerial view of Borough Market Junction, the film uses time lapse photography to show the congestion rife in the area during the morning rush hour.

2. (British, slang, derogatory) By extension, a financial industry worker from a working class or lower middle class family background.
   • 1992, Leslie Budd, Sam Whimster, Global Finance and Urban Living, page 326:

     The "barrow boy" commodities trader may well have no aspirations to old-style middle class tastes.

References

• “barrow boy”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.