commissariat

[kom-uh-sair-ee-uht]

noun

1. any of the major governmental divisions of the U.S.S.R.: called ministry since 1946.

2. the organized method or manner by which food, equipment, transport, etc., is delivered to armies.

3. the department of an army charged with supplying provisions.

commissariat

/ ˌkɒmɪˈsɛərɪət /

noun

1. Now called: ministry. (in the former Soviet Union) a government department before 1946

2. 1. a military department in charge of food supplies, equipment, etc

   2. the offices of such a department

3. food supplies

Word History and Origins

Origin of commissariat¹

1600–10; < New Latin commissāriātus, equivalent to Medieval Latin commissāri ( us ) commissary + -ātus -ate ³; commissariat ( def. 1 ) < Russian komissariát ≪ New Latin, as above

Word History and Origins

Origin of commissariat¹

C17: from New Latin commissāriātus, from Medieval Latin commissārius _commissary

Example Sentences

The commissariat held 38 women, it said, some of whom slept in the chief's office overnight under police supervision, where other detainees were permitted "a breather" during the day.

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And in his summoning of the nation to seriousness, he is scalding about the Defense Department’s “woke commissariat.”

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Across from the town’s voenkomat, or military commissariat, the cream-colored walls on Lenin Street are smeared haphazardly with gobs of white paint.

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Last week at a voenkomat, or military commissariat, in northwestern Moscow, wives, mothers, and children gathered to say goodbye to loved ones being shipped off to fight.

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But there have been multiple reports of military commissariats deploying soldiers to the front just days after they were summoned.

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