A peddler; a merchant.

[From Old English ceapman, from ceap (trade, bargain), from Latin caupo (shopkeeper or innkeeper) + man. The German equivalent is Kaufmann, Dutch koopman.]

Baxter (BAK-stuhr) noun

            A baker, especially a female baker.

[From Old English baecestre, feminine of baecere, from bacan (to bake).]


Mercer (MUR-suhr) noun

            A dealer in textiles, especially silk and other fine materials.

[From Old French mercier (trader), from Latin merx (goods). Words such as market, merchant, commerce, and mercantile share the same origin.]

            The Chapman Academy of Fashion was the place to learn about textiles. Here, some of the world’s top mercers learned to discern with only the slightest touch of their fingertips the most subtle differences in fabrics.

            Two star students could almost pinpoint where the threads in any material originated, but Barbara Baxter was not one of them. She pulled average grades though she studied every night into the malicious hours of the morning when her dog demanded to be walked.

            She had been trying so hard, which made it that much worse when that Maraj woman, who toured the academy the afternoon before with a very handsome member of the board of regents, seemed to know everything already but didn’t care.

            Barbara thought Maraj probably didn’t even realize she had the gift; and if she did, she did not respect it or what she could contribute to the garment industry if she tried.

            That whole, impromptu puppet-show stunt in front of the instructor, using, of all fabrics, very expensive shagreen, was unbelievable and depressing. Barbara sighed and decided to seriously consider going to baking school. - N

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Background: 

Along with countless other people the world over, I enjoy my subscription to A. Word. A. Day. that results in a daily email message with interesting, sometimes completely unknown-to-me words, along with pronounciation guide, etymology typical usage and more.

The New York Times hailed AWADmail as: "The most welcomed, most enduring piece of daily mass e-mail in cyberspace."

One day way back when, I decided that for learning, it would be helpful and fun to use the words AWAD sent to me in a sentence or two. Of course I found myself going beyond that and using them in not-so-obvious ways that entertained my friends as well as myself. Sometimes I use words incorrectly on purpose. But if you know the meaning, you get the joke. It is kind of a backward way of doing things, but that's creativity, right?

The first character inspired by AWAD was Maraj (not her real name.) She has quite a few fans. At the encouragement of several persistent friends, I decided it was time to share her and the others with my new friends here at OS, and begin on the first day of 2010. 

I'm offering vocabulary words I received from AWAD and what I wrote to practice using them. Tell me this isn't a much more fun way to work on improving one's vocabulary. Enjoy. Maraj and more will be back – and check out www.wordsmith.org to sign up for the free subscription. They don't know me, but for fun tell them I sent you. Like OS, it can be addictive. -- Natalie