Talk:Peddler
I have removed the reference to Stationers as contrasted with Peddler because the etymology of the word on which that was based is misleading. According to the website of the Stationers Company, who should know the word was first mentioned in 1417 as the Mistery of Scriveners, Limners and Stacioners (Cal. L. Bk. 1. p.173), and "Stacyoners", defined in the Prompt. Parv. c. 1440, as "he that sellythe bokys," comes from the Latin " stacionarius" which term was in use in the universities to designate those persons who were in charge of a Station or depot where the standard texts of classical works were kept and who were authorised to deal out these texts to the students by sale or loan (L. and M. Arch. Soc. Trans. II. 37 et seq.). Also there were many pedlars, more usually known as chapmen, who sold books, but stationers were not so called in contrast to them.
See: 'Stationers' Company', A Dictionary of London (1918). URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=6142. Date accessed: 09 March 2006.