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colporteur
Jul. 2nd, 2014 07:43 amcolporteur (KOL-pawr-ter) - n., a book peddler, especially of religious tracts.
And of Bibles. Typically itinerant -- thus the -porteur, French cognate of porter, carrier (in the sense of a portage). The col- part is neck (apparently because they carried their stock around it?) done as an alteration of comporteur, to peddle -- an early example of a portmanteau word.
---L.
And of Bibles. Typically itinerant -- thus the -porteur, French cognate of porter, carrier (in the sense of a portage). The col- part is neck (apparently because they carried their stock around it?) done as an alteration of comporteur, to peddle -- an early example of a portmanteau word.
---L.
