Acatour

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. An obsolete term for an official who purchased food and supplies for a monastery, college, or other institution
2. A medieval purchasing agent responsible for buying provisions on behalf of a religious house or similar body
3. Historically, a person employed to procure victuals and stores for a community such as a college or abbey

Etymology: The word "acatour" belongs to a family built on the idea of buying. Its Old French ancestor, "acater", meant "to purchase," and it arrived in Middle English as "achatour," a buyer. From that plain sense of purchasing, English narrowed the word to a specific job: the official who bought food and supplies for a community that had to feed many people at once, such as a college or an abbey. The spelling shifted over the centuries, and "acater" survives as a variant form, so the word has been used in both spellings. Its role was practical rather than grand. Whoever held the post had to shop for a large household, which made the buyer a figure of real responsibility in institutions that could not simply go to the market each day.