Similar words

I was reading the last essay in Oliver Sacks' 2015 memoir Gratitude when I encountered a word I've never used, though it was obvious to me what the word meant in context:

"We lived in a fairly Orthodox Jewish community in Cricklewood, in Northwest London — the butcher, the baker, the grocer, the greengrocer, the fishmonger, all closed their shops in good time for the Sabbath, and did not open their shutters till Sunday morning" (p. 34).

At first glance, the grocer and the greengrocer are the same in my mind, but then I thought, "Green, as in growing stuff."  Yes, that's pretty much what the dictionary says.

Word of the Day #1

green·gro·cer /ˈɡrēnˌɡrōsər / noun (British) = a retailer of fruits and vegetables.

Word of the Day #2

gro·cer /ˈɡrōsər / noun = a shopkeeper who sells foods such as meat, flour, sugar, canned goods, as well as fruits and vegetables.

There's the key to why the term "greengrocer" is not one I use — it's British.  My dad was a grocer.  He owned a small grocery store in the early 1940s, before he was drafted into the Army during the Second World War.  He was also a meat cutter (not a butcher, he insisted, who butchers the animals), so that means he had meats in his store as well as fruits and vegetables and other things.