“ The sale of such articles is not generally carried on alone, and a “haberdashery counter” usually forms a department of drapers’ shops. The word, found in Chaucer, and even earlier (1311) , is of obscure origin; the suggestion that it is connected with an Icelandic haprtask, “haversack,” is, according to the New English Dictionary, impossible. Hapertas occurs in an early Anglo-French customs list, which includes articles such as were sold by haberdashers, but this word may itself have been a misspelling of “haberdash.” ”