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purveyor

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

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WOTD – 13 April 2025

Etymology

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Allan Bennett, a butcher in Wednesfield, West Midlands, England, United Kingdom. Their sign announces that they are “purveyors of all prime quality meat” (sense 1).

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”),[1] 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).[2] 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.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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purveyor (plural purveyors)

  2. One who purveys (“furnishes, provides; gets, procures”); a supplier; specifically, one in the business of supplying food or other necessary material goods; a provisioner.
    Synonyms: (historical) achatour, chandler, proveditor, provedore, provisor
    Hypernym: provider
    Hyponyms: grocer, sutler, victualler
    The merchants are the purveyors of fine selections.
    • 1635, Fra[ncis] Quarles, “Canto VI. Psal[m] LXXIII. XXV.”, in Emblemes, London: […] G[eorge] M[iller] and sold at at Iohn Marriots shope […], →OCLC, book V, stanza 3, page 265:
      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; […]
    • 1709 August 6 (Gregorian calendar), Isaac Bickerstaff [et al., pseudonyms; Joseph Addison], “Tuesday, July 26, 1709”, in The Tatler, number 46; republished in [Richard Steele], editor, The Tatler, […], London stereotype edition, volume I, London: I. Walker and Co.;  […], 1822, →OCLC, page 279:
      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, […]
      The spelling has been modernized.
    • 1725, [Daniel Defoe], “Part II”, in A New Voyage Round the World, by a Course Never Sailed before. […], London: […] A[rthur] Bettesworth, […]; and W. Mears, […], →OCLC, page 152:
      [T]he Spaniard himſelf came Incognito to them, and, vvith the utmoſt Kindneſs and Generoſity, vvas their Guide himſelf, and their Purveyor alſo, […]
    • 1760 February 9, [Samuel Johnson], “The Idler. No. 96.”, in The Universal Chronicle, or Weekly Gazette, volume III, number 97, London: […] R. Stevens, […]; and W[illiam] Faden, […], →OCLC, page 41, column 3:
      Riches, vvithout Honour, he holds empty Things; and once told me to my Face, that vvealthy Plodders vvere only Purveyors for Men of Spirit.
    1. (UK, historical) An officer who obtained provisions such as accommodation and food for the household of a monarch or some other high-ranking person; also, an officer in charge of obtaining provisions for an army, a city, etc.
      Synonyms: (historical) foregoer, proveditor
      Coordinate terms: steward; quartermaster
      groom purveyor    yeoman purveyor
      • 1576, Franciscus Patricius, “The Thirde Booke Entreateth of the Election, & Choise of Magistrates, in a Cõmon Weale: Of Moral Examples in Furderinge Their Offices and Duties in Seuerall: […] Of Carefull Prouision for Corne and Victualles, Needfull aswell in Peace as in Warres for the Publique Sustenation”, in Rycharde Robinson, transl., A Moral Methode of Ciuile Policie. Contayninge a Learned and Fruictful Discourse of the Institution, State and Gouernment of a Common Weale. […], London: […] Thomas Marsh, →OCLC, folio [27], verso:
        Let therfore firſt and principall care be for competent prouiſion of victuall, namely bread corne, the vſe wherof is ſeene to be farre more neceſſary, then any other thinge and let there bee made three Purueyghours, or principall victuallers, to haue the ouerſighte, and ſurueighe of all victual, and make prouiſion of the ſame accordinglye: […]
      • 1596 (date written; published 1633), Edmund Spenser, A Vewe of the Present State of Irelande […], Dublin: […] Societie of Stationers, […], →OCLC; republished as A View of the State of Ireland […] (Ancient Irish Histories), Dublin: […] Society of Stationers, […] Hibernia Press, […] [b]y John Morrison, 1809, →OCLC, page 144:
        [Y]et some there be of that nature, that though they be in private men, yet their evil reacheth to a general hurt, as the extortion of sheriffs and their sub-sheriffs, and bayliffes, the corruption of victuallers, cessors, and purveyors, the disorders of seneschalls, captaines, and their souldiers, and many such like: […]
      • 1601, C[aius] Plinius Secundus [i.e., Pliny the Elder], “[Book VII.] Of Servants and Slaves.”, in Philemon Holland, transl., The Historie of the World. Commonly Called, The Naturall Historie of C. Plinius Secundus. […], 1st tome, London: […] Adam Islip, →OCLC, page 175:
        [T]he Treaſurer and purveiour generall of the armie in Armenia for the late vvars of king Tyridates [Tiridates I of Armenia], […] vvas enfranchiſed by the meanes of Nero, for 120000 Seſterces. But it vvas the vvarre that coſt thus much, and not the man.
      • 1821 January 8, [Walter Scott], chapter XIII, in Kenilworth; a Romance. […], volume II, Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Co.; and John Ballantyne, […]; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., →OCLC, page 323:
        The Queen's purveyors had been abroad, sweeping the farms and villages of those articles usually exacted during a royal Progress, and for which the owners were afterwards to obtain a tardy payment from the Board of Green Cloth.
  3. (figurative) A person or group that promotes or spreads an idea, a viewpoint, etc.
    purveyors of false information
  4. (obsolete) One who arranges or prepares something; an arranger, an orchestrator, a preparer.
    • 1571 (date written), Thomas Purye?, “The Defence of Thomas Thackham, Minister, in His Conduct towards Julins Palmer. [An Answere to a Slaunder Untruely Reported by Mr. [John] Foxe, in a Certen Boke Intytuled the Second Volume off the Ecclesiasticall Historye, Conteynynge the Actes and Monumentes off Martyres, […]]”, in John Gough Nichols, editor, Narratives of the Days of the Reformation, Chiefly from the Manuscripts of John Foxe the Martyrologist; […] (Works of the Camden Society; 77), London: […] [John B[owyer] Nichols and Sons] for the Camden Society, published 1859, →OCLC, page 112:
      That certayn servantes of sir Fraunces Knowles [Francis Knollys?] and other [resorting to his lectures] fell owte amonge themselfes, and were lyke to have commytted murther, and therefore he was suer of sedition and prevyer of unlawfull assemblies.

Alternative forms

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Derived terms

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Translations

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References

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  1. ^ “purveiǒur, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
  2. ^ “purveyor, n.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, September 2024; “purveyor, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Further reading

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