Dictionary.com
definitions
  • synonyms

colportage

[kol-pawr-tij, -pohr-; French kawl-pawr-tazh]
noun
  1. the work of a colporteur.
Show More

Origin of colportage

1840–50; < French, equivalent to colport(er) to hawk (literally, carry on the neck; see col, port5) + -age -age
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for colportage

Historical Examples of colportage

  • We have ventured to employ the words colporteur and colportage to express the trade and title of those itinerant booksellers.

    History of the Reformation of the Sixteenth Century, Volume III

    J. H. Merle D'Aubign

  • These are exceedingly rare and were frankly among the works of colportage of their particular period.