Mong

Cute note seen on Substack.

Five things you can mong:
Cheese, war, fish, hate, iron

Got me thinking about the root. Previously active suffixes tell a story. How did they lose their activeness?

Etymonline says:

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Old English mangere “merchant, trader, broker,” agent noun from mangian “to traffic, trade,” from Proto-Germanic *mangojan (source also of Old Saxon mangon, Old Norse mangari “monger, higgler”), from Latin mango (genitive mangonis) “dealer, trader, slave-dealer,” which is related to mangonium “displaying of wares.”

One who adorns his wares to give them an appearance of greater value. Probably based on Greek manganon “means of charming or bewitching.”

Used in combinations in English at least since 12c. (fishmonger, cheesemonger, etc.); since 16c. chiefly with overtones of petty and disreputable (for example ballad-monger “inferior poet,” 1590s; scandal-monger).

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A monger started as a charmer. Duane Jones emphasizes the importance of glamorizing the product. In England the monger descended to a scammer or cheap peddler.

But cheap seems to have been low status from the start. Low price has always been definitionally identical with low status. In Javascript cheap === low status, in Python cheap IS low status.

Fits nicely with the basic nature of Krauts and Angles. They’re not traders. Storekeeper and tradesman are low status, relegated to the service entrance.

In trading cultures (Chinese, Jewish, Arab) the trader or broker is high status and aspirational.

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Just noticed something BASIC about the broad divisions of humanity.

Going back 5000 years, you can always identify a few essential occupations. The essentials have split into specialties but the types are constant and innate.

1. Warrior ( = soldier, chief, executive…)

2. Healer ( = doctor, priest, teacher…)

3. Farmer ( = mechanic, engineer…)

4. Trader ( = merchant, banker…)

WAIT. Those four ancient types are constant in mid latitudes, from China to India to Babylon to Phoenicia to Greece to Rome. The Silk Road people, defined ABOVE ALL by trading.

The northern tribes, from Russia to Eskimos to Celts to all of the Americas, had the first 3 but not the Trader type. Same for Africa. They never developed abstract money or merchants or bankers. Russia is still short on the merchant tendency, which is why socialism worked there.

In modern times, we have the disputes between trader Hindus and non-trader Africans in big cities. Or the interaction between trader Jews on the coasts vs non-trader Celts (hillbillies) in inland USA.

When the interaction is based on trade, the innate trader tribes always win. Non-trader tribes can learn commerce, but we never master it at the same level as the innate traders.

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