跳蚤市场就是二手交易的街头市场。可是为什么经营旧货的街头市场被称为跳蚤市场呢？请看对话：

    A: How do you plan to spend the weekend?

    B: I want to declutter my home and sell those unwanted items at our neighborhood flea market.

    Note: A flea market is a place where people sell old or used articles. There are two theories about its origin. According to etymologist Christine Ammer, the first flea market may have been New York’s raucous Fly Market. The “Fly” came from the Dutch name for the market, “Vly” or “Vlie,” which meant “valley,” and was pronounced “flea.”

    However, the actual origin of the term most probably lies in Paris’ Le Marche aux Puces (literally market of the fleas), a popular shopping venue. Le Marche aux Puces took its name from the semi-humorous (and probably at least partly accurate) popular perception that the market’s shabby second-hand goods were more than likely to be infested with fleas.

    The word flea market first appeared in English in the 1920s and is most likely a simple translation of the French market’s name.