Daily AncestorHaberdasher
A haberdasher sold small sewing goods such as ribbons, buttons and thread in Britain, while in American usage a haberdasher sold men's clothing.
The word appears in Chaucer and may come from an Anglo-French word for small wares. A haberdasher in Britain sold the notions needed for sewing, dressmaking and knitting.
In the United States the word came to mean a men's outfitter selling suits, shirts, neckties and dress shoes. So a haberdasher in an English record and one in an American city may have stocked quite different goods.
As seen in a recordOccupation column of the 1850 to 1940 census
Isidor Katz, 38, Haberdasher
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Daily Ancestor. "Haberdasher." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/occupations/haberdasher. Last checked 2026-10-10.