The word badger was, in English, a term of uncertain derivation for a dealer in food or victuals which he had purchased in one place and carried for sale in another place. The Oxford English Dictionary records the earliest definitive occurrence of the word in English from Bristol c. 1500, but there were bager(s)gates at York in 1243 and in Lincoln by 1252. The designation continued in use until the 19th century in Great Britain.