colportage

[kol-pawr-tij, -pohr-; French kawl-pawr-tazh]

noun

the work of a colporteur.

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.
The Illustrated Key to the Tarot
L. W. de Laurence