commissionaire
English
Alternative forms
- commissionnaire
Etymology
Borrowed from French commissionaire, from Latin commissio. Doublet of commissioner.
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /kəˌmɪʃəˈnɛː/
- (General American) IPA(key): /kəˌmɪʃəˈnɛɹ/
- (obsolete) IPA(key): /kəˌmɪsjəˈnɛɹ/, /kəˌmɪsjəˈneɪɹ/[1]
Noun
commissionaire (plural commissionaires)
- One entrusted with a (small) commission, such as an errand; especially, an attendant or subordinate employee in a public office, hotel, etc.
- (Britain) A uniformed doorman.
- 2004, Alan Hollinghurst, chapter 8, in The Line of Beauty, New York: Bloomsbury, OCLC 1036692193:
- When the day came Nick turned up early at the bank and waited under a palm tree in the atrium. People hurried in, nodding to the commissionaire, who still wore a tailcoat and a top hat.
-
- (law) An undisclosed agent under European civil law.
Derived terms
- commissionairess
References
- Jespersen, Otto (1909) A Modern English Grammar on Historical Principles (Sammlung germanischer Elementar- und Handbücher; 9), volume I: Sounds and Spellings, London: George Allen & Unwin, published 1961, § 12.22, page 342.