# Flea market

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flea-market/2615>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [August 18, 1999, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flea-market/2615 "1999-08-18T04:12:00Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Rasputin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/dec6dc/32.png) [@Rasputin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rasputin)\
**Post date:** [August 18, 1999, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flea-market/2615/1 "1999-08-18T04:12:00Z")

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All right…so why is it called a _flea_ market? And I’m hoping it’s more than just the obvious (which it probably is anyways). It seems a bad marketing ploy to name your shopping area after a parasitic insect no one wants to have on their purchased goods.

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“Give a man a match and he’ll be warm for an hour… Set him on fire and he’ll be warm for the rest of his life.”

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**Author:** ![ChrisCTP](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e36b37/32.png) [@ChrisCTP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ChrisCTP)\
**Post date:** [August 18, 1999, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flea-market/2615/2 "1999-08-18T04:38:00Z")

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It’s where you go to buy fleas. Duh.

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Veni, Vidi, Visa … I came, I saw, I bought.

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**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\
**Post date:** [August 18, 1999, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flea-market/2615/3 "1999-08-18T04:42:00Z")

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It is not where you buy fleas…It happens to be where the fleas sell their goods

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**Author:** ![TubaDiva](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tubadiva/32/507_2.png) [@TubaDiva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TubaDiva)\
**Post date:** [August 18, 1999, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flea-market/2615/4 "1999-08-18T05:28:00Z")

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From the _Morris Dictionary of Word and Phrase Origins_, ppg. 224-225:

> [@](#):
>
> **flea market** is an open-air or street market that sells a wide variety of merchandise, most of it secondhand and some of it masquerading as antique. . . The reason for the name is simply that there are so many secondhand articles of all kinds for sale that they are believed to gather fleas.

Sounds like every flea market I’ve ever been to.

your humble TubaDiva

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**Author:** ![tanstaafl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ba8739/32.png) [@tanstaafl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tanstaafl)\
**Post date:** [August 19, 1999, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flea-market/2615/5 "1999-08-19T05:06:00Z")

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According to Webster’s, it’s named after a specific market in France:

> [@](#):
>
> Main Entry: flea market  
> Function: noun  
> Etymology: translation of French _Marché aux Puces_, a market in Paris  
> Date: 1922  
> : a usually open-air market for secondhand articles and antiques

That being said, _I_ always heard that it came from the fact that it was a “small” market (as opposed to the main town market square) and that “flea” was a reference to the size.

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“You can’t run away forever; but there’s nothing wrong with getting a good head start.” — Jim Steinman

Dennis Matheson — [Dennis@mountaindiver.com](mailto:Dennis@mountaindiver.com)  
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