colporteur
English
19th-century colporteur
Alternative forms
- colporter
Etymology
Borrowed from French colporteur, from comporteur by influence of col (“neck”) (re-analyzed as col + porteur (“porter”)), from verb comporter, from Latin comportō (English comport).
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /kɒlpɔː(ɹ)ˈtɜː(ɹ)/
Audio (RP) (file)
Noun
colporteur (plural colporteurs)
- A peddler of publications, especially of religious books
Related terms
- colportage
- colport
Dutch
Etymology
Borrowed from French colporteur.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˌkɔl.pɔrˈtøːr/
Audio (file) - Hyphenation: col‧por‧teur
- Rhymes: -øːr
Noun
colporteur m (plural colporteurs)
- A door-to-door salesperson.
Related terms
- colportage
- colporteren
French
Etymology
From colporter + -eur.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /kɔl.pɔʁ.tœʁ/
Audio (Paris) (file)
Noun
colporteur m (plural colporteurs, feminine colporteuse)
- peddler, hawker
Descendants
- English: colporteur, colporter
Further reading
- “colporteur”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.