A wonderfully archaic British slang term for a schoolmaster or grammar teacher — someone who pedantically deals out parts of speech like a shopkeeper sells small goods. The joke is in the comparison: a haberdasher sells buttons, ribbons, and thread (trivial small items), and a schoolmaster peddles pronouns, conjunctions, and other grammatical bits. It's witty, old-fashioned, and perfectly captures the slightly contemptuous view of grammar teachers as petty tradespeople of language.
The boys dreaded afternoons with Old Blackwell — that haberdasher of pronouns who could spot a dangling modifier from fifty paces.
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Regional slang from around the English-speaking world — British, Australian, Irish, Caribbean, Nigerian, Filipino, AAVE, and the hyphenated-English dialects that make the internet sound local.
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(obsolete, _, slang) schoolmaster.
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