fleshmonger means one who deals in flesh; hence, a pimp, procurer, or pander. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 87 out of 100.
Why “fleshmonger” is a great word
A dealer in flesh, originally a butcher but later and more damningly, a pimp or procurer. Its lineage runs from Old English flǣsċ (meat, body tissue) and mangere (dealer, trader), a compound already in use before 1150. Unlike "butcher," whose domain is the abattoir, or "procurer," a clinical term for a sordid transaction, "fleshmonger" collapses the distance between the shambles and the brothel, treating human bodies with the same transactional brutality as sides of beef. It is the blood-slick apron worn over a velvet jacket, the grimy coin passed in a shadowed doorway, the reduction of a person to mere, negotiable tissue—a word that indicts the oldest and coldest of trades.
Etymology
From Middle English fleshmongere, from Old English flǣsċmangere; equivalent to flesh + monger.
noun
- One who deals in flesh; hence, a pimp, procurer, or pander.“Carnarius. A boucher: also a fleshmonger.”
- A butcher.