vivandière

American  

[vee-vahn-dyair, vee-vahn-dyer] / ˌvi vɑnˈdjɛər, vi vɑ̃ˈdjɛr /

noun

1. a woman who formerly followed an army or maintained a store on an army post to sell provisions to the soldiers.

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vivandière British  

/ vivɑ̃djɛr /

noun

1. (formerly) a female sutler or victualler offering extra provisions and spirits to soldiers, esp those of the French and British armies

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Etymology

Origin of vivandière

First recorded in 1845–50; from French vivandière, feminine of vivandier, from Italian (masculine) vivandiere “sutler”; see also viand ( def. ), -ier ²

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

vivandière

The latter were bestowed upon the French vivandière.

From Fifty-One Years of Victorian Life by Margaret Elizabeth Leigh Child-Villiers

Faith, her father was a French grenadier and her mother a vivandière.

From Clementina by A. E. W. (Alfred Edward Woodley) Mason

I longed to be a vivandière among all those fauns.

From Visionaries by James Huneker

Marie, the heroine, and the vivandière of the Twenty-first regiment of Napoleon's army, was adopted as the Daughter of the Regiment, because she was found on the field, after a battle, by Sergeant Sulpice.

From The Standard Operas (12th edition) Their Plots, Their Music, and Their Composers by George P. (George Putnam) Upton

The scene of 'La Fille du Régiment' is laid in the Tyrol, where Tonio, a peasant, has had the good fortune to save the life of Marie, the vivandière of a French regiment.

From The Opera A Sketch of the Development of Opera. With full Descriptions of all Works in the Modern Repertory. by J. A. Fuller-Maitland

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