purveyor
/pəɹˈveɪəɹ/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.55 in modern English
16
Scrabble Score
8
Letters
3
Syllables
7
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
One who purveys (“furnishes, provides; gets, procures”); a supplier; specifically, one in the business of supplying food or other necessary material goods; a provisioner.
noun
One who purveys (“furnishes, provides; gets, procures”); a supplier; specifically, one in the business of supplying food or other necessary material goods; a provisioner.
British usage
Example Sentences
- "The merchants are the purveyors of fine selections."
- "I love the Sea; She is my fellovv-Creature; / My carefull Purveyor; She provides me ſtore; / She vvals me round; She makes my diet greater; / She vvafts my treaſure from a forreigne ſhore; […]"
- "But a Prince is no more to be his own caterer in his Love, than in his food; therefore Aurengezebe has ever in waiting two purveyors for his dishes, and his wenches for his retired hours, […]"
- "[T]he Spaniard himſelf came Incognito to them, and, vvith the utmoſt Kindneſs and Generoſity, vvas their Guide himſelf, and their Purveyor alſo, […]"
- "Riches, vvithout Honour, he holds empty Things; and once told me to my Face, that vvealthy Plodders vvere only Purveyors for Men of Spirit."
- "groom purveyor yeoman purveyor"
Etymology
From Middle English purveiour (“one who procures or supplies necessities, provider; city, military, religious, or household employee in charge of provisions, steward; one in charge, overseer; one who goes ahead to prepare the way, forerunner; one who arranges accommodations for a traveller; (figurative) one who gathers greedily”), from Anglo-Norman purveour, Middle French pourveur, pourvoyeur, and (chiefly Northern) Old French purveour (“one who procures or supplies necessities or things in general; one who arranges or prepares something”) (modern French pourvoyeur), from porveoir, purveer, purveir (“to equip, furnish, provide, purvey; to foresee; to look at; to obtain, procure”) (modern French pourvoir) + -or (suffix forming agent nouns). Porveoir is derived from Latin prōvidēre, the present active infinitive of prōvideō (“to care for, look after; to foresee; to provide, see to”), from prō- (prefix meaning ‘before; forward’) + videō (“to see; to look out for, care for, provide, see to”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *weyd- (“to see”)). By surface analysis, purvey + -or (suffix forming agent nouns denoting people or things which do the actions denoted by the stems). Doublet of proveditor and provedore.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: *per-, purveiour, purveour, pourveur, prōvidēre, *weyd-
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /pəɹˈveɪəɹ/
- British English: /pə(ː)ˈveɪə/