colporteur

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

noun

, plural col·por·teurs [kol, -pawr-terz, kawl-paw, r, -, tœr].

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

colporteur

/ ˈkɒlˌpɔːtə; kɔlpɔrtœr /

noun

1. a hawker of books, esp bibles

Derived Forms

• ˈcolˌportage, noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of colporteur¹

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

Word History and Origins

Origin of colporteur¹

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

Example Sentences

And the colporteur helps Vincent find permanent lodging with a farming family in Wasmes, the community he's serving.

From Literature

Art became a colporteur, a distributer of tracts, a mendicant missionary whose highest ambition was to suppress all heathen joy.

From Project Gutenberg

I am the possessor of the MS. of Borrow’s Gypsies of Spain, written partly in a Spanish notebook as he moved about Spain in his colporteur days. 

From Project Gutenberg

In a remote village of Spain a Bible Society’s colporteur, carrying a coloured banner, sold me a copy of Cipriano de Valera’s New Testament for a peseta. 

From Project Gutenberg

As it was, the heretical colporteur had seventy-six copies of the New Testament confiscated.

From Project Gutenberg