purveyor
Part of speech: noun
Morphological type: derivation
Etymology: From Middle English purveiour (“one who procures or supplies necessities, provider; city, military, religious, or household employee in charge of provisions, steward; one in charge, overseer; one who goes ahead to prepare the way, forerunner; one who arranges accommodations for a traveller; (figurative) one who gathers greedily”), from Anglo-Norman purveour, Middle French pourveur, pourvoyeur, and (chiefly Northern) Old French purveour (“one who procures or supplies necessities or things in general; one who arranges or prepares something”) (modern French pourvoyeur), from porveoir, purveer, purveir (“to equip, furnish, provide, purvey; to foresee; to look at; to obtain, procure”) (modern French pourvoir) + -or (suffix forming agent nouns). Porveoir is derived from Latin prōvidēre, the present active infinitive of prōvideō (“to care for, look after; to foresee; to provide, see to”), from prō- (prefix meaning ‘before; forward’) + videō (“to see; to look out for, care for, provide, see to”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *weyd- (“to see”)). By surface analysis, purvey + -or (suffix forming agent nouns denoting people or things which do the actions denoted by the stems). Doublet of proveditor and provedore.
Inflected forms:
form: purveyors
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: purveyour
pos: noun
tags: alternative
Senses:
gloss: One who purveys (“furnishes, provides; gets, procures”); a supplier; specifically, one in the business of supplying food or other necessary material goods; a provisioner.
pos: noun
examples: The merchants are the purveyors of fine selections.
I love the Sea; She is my fellovv-Creature; / My carefull Purveyor; She provides me ſtore; / She vvals me round; She makes my diet greater; / She vvafts my treaſure from a forreigne ſhore; […]
But a Prince is no more to be his own caterer in his Love, than in his food; therefore Aurengezebe has ever in waiting two purveyors for his dishes, and his wenches for his retired hours, […]
[T]he Spaniard himſelf came Incognito to them, and, vvith the utmoſt Kindneſs and Generoſity, vvas their Guide himſelf, and their Purveyor alſo, […]
Riches, vvithout Honour, he holds empty Things; and once told me to my Face, that vvealthy Plodders vvere only Purveyors for Men of Spirit.
gloss: One who purveys (“furnishes, provides; gets, procures”); a supplier; specifically, one in the business of supplying food or other necessary material goods; a provisioner.
pos: noun
tags: UK
historical
examples: groom purveyor    yeoman purveyor
Let therfore firſt and principall care be for competent prouiſion of victuall, namely bread corne, the vſe wherof is ſeene to be farre more neceſſary, then any other thinge and let there bee made three Purueyghours, or principall victuallers, to haue the ouerſighte, and ſurueighe of all victual, and make prouiſion of the ſame accordinglye: […]
[Y]et some there be of that nature, that though they be in private men, yet their evil reacheth to a general hurt, as the extortion of sheriffs and their sub-sheriffs, and bayliffes, the corruption of victuallers, cessors, and purveyors, the disorders of seneschalls, captaines, and their souldiers, and many such like: […]
[T]he Treaſurer and purveiour generall of the armie in Armenia for the late vvars of king Tyridates [Tiridates I of Armenia], […] vvas enfranchiſed by the meanes of Nero, for 120000 Seſterces. But it vvas the vvarre that coſt thus much, and not the man.
The Queen's purveyors had been abroad, sweeping the farms and villages of those articles usually exacted during a royal Progress, and for which the owners were afterwards to obtain a tardy payment from the Board of Green Cloth.
gloss: A person or group that promotes or spreads an idea, a viewpoint, etc.
pos: noun
tags: figuratively
examples: purveyors of false information
gloss: One who arranges or prepares something; an arranger, an orchestrator, a preparer.
pos: noun
tags: obsolete
examples: That certayn servantes of sir Fraunces Knowles [Francis Knollys?] and other [resorting to his lectures] fell owte amonge themselfes, and were lyke to have commytted murther, and therefore he was suer of sedition and prevyer of unlawfull assemblies.
Related words: proveditor
provide
provider
provision
provisioner
provisor
purvey
Derived words: bread-purveyor
purveyoress
Translations: