colporteur

[ kol-pawr-ter, -pohr-; French kawl-pawr-tœr ]

See synonyms for colporteur on Thesaurus.com

noun,plural col·por·teurs

[kol-pawr-terz; French kawl-pawr-tœr]. /ˈkɒlˌpɔr tərz; French kɔl pɔrˈtœr/.

a person who travels to sell or publicize Bibles, religious tracts, etc.
a peddler of books.

Origin of colporteur

1790–1800; <French, equivalent to colport(er) (see colportage) + -eur-eur

Words Nearby colporteur

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use colporteur in a sentence

There was not the same public to welcome the Gypsy as had hailed the colporteur.
Lavengro | George Borrow
Will you write the tracts, or get them written, so that I may commence colporteur?
John Brown, Soldier of Fortune | Hill Peebles Wilson
He is a colporteur, and introduces the Holy Scriptures into families to whom he speaks concerning the things of God.
Memoir and Diary of John Yeardley, Minister of the Gospel | John Yeardley
Art became a colporteur, a distributer of tracts, a mendicant missionary whose highest ambition was to suppress all heathen joy.
The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll, Vol. 11 (of 12) | Robert G. Ingersoll
He was a person of such excellent character and conduct, that he had been selected as colporteur for the neighbourhood.
The Huguenots in France | Samuel Smiles.

British Dictionary definitions for colporteur

colporteur

/ (ˈkɒlˌpɔːtə, French kɔlpɔrtœr) /

noun

a hawker of books, esp bibles

Origin of colporteur

C18: from French, from colporter, probably from Old French comporter to carry (see comport); influenced through folk etymology by porter à col to carry on one's neck

Derived forms of colporteur

colportage, noun

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

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