barrow boy

• barrow-boy

Compound of barrow +‎ boy. Attested since the 1930s in the sense of costermonger; the slang usage dates from the 1980s.

barrow boy (plural barrow boys)

1. (Britain) A boy or man who sells goods – especially fruit or vegetables – from a barrow; a costermonger.
   • 1948, Is rhubarb a fruit?, The Listener, page 650:

     ...at a London magistrate's court a young coster — a barrow boy — was summoned before me for selling rhubarb without a licence.

2. (Britain, slang, derogatory) By extension, a financial industry worker from a working class or lower middle class family background.
   • 1992, Leslie Budd and Sam Whimster, Global Finance and Urban Living, page 326:

     The "barrow boy" commodities trader may well have no aspirations to old-style middle class tastes.