"to retail, to sell in small quantities" (trans.), 1837, a colloquial back-formation from peddler. Earlier in intransitive sense of "travel about retailing small wares" (1530s). Related: Peddled; peddling. Peddling as "trifling, petty, insignificant" is by 1590s.
pedant
pedantic
pedanticism
pedantocracy
pedantry
peddle
peddler
pederast
pederasty
pedestal
pedestrian