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 (Southern England):

  (file)

Noun

colporteur (plural colporteurs)

1. 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)

1. 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)

1. peddler, hawker

Descendants

• English: colporteur, colporter

Further reading

• “colporteur”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.