Other forms: purveyors
A purveyor is somebody who supplies goods as a trade. Purveyors of fine foods, a purveyor of nonsense, by appointment as purveyor.
It is a deliberately old-fashioned word used on shop fronts to suggest long standing. The figurative use is sarcastic, and calling somebody a purveyor of anything abstract is nearly always an insult.
1nounpurveyorSomebody who supplies goods as a trade.
“The market stall is run by a local purveyor of cheese and cured meats.”
purveyor is a supplier.
Old French porveoir means to provide, from Latin providere, to foresee or provide.
Proto-Indo-European
*per-
Proto-Indo-European
*weyd- — to see
Latin
prōvidēre
Old French
purveour — one who procures or supplies necessities or things in general; one who arranges or prepares something
Middle French
pourveur
Anglo-Norman
purveour
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
English, today
purveyor
Built from
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. 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- + 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. a doublet of proveditor and provedore.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA