Maunciple

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A steward responsible for purchasing food and supplies for a college, monastery, or inn, as portrayed in Chaucer's writing
2. An archaic term for the official who buys provisions and stores for an institution such as an Oxford college or an inn
3. A historical purchasing agent who procured victuals for a religious house, legal society, or lodging establishment

Etymology: The word comes from Latin "mancipium," meaning the legal act of taking something into one's hand, which came to mean ownership or purchase. A "manceps" was a purchaser or contractor, and the root joins "manus," hand, with "capere," to take. Through Old French "mancipe," the word reached English as a term for someone who buys provisions on behalf of others. Its most famous English use is in Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales," where the Manciple is a steward who buys food for a group of lawyers and consistently outwits his more educated employers. That literary portrait fixed the word in English as a steward responsible for purchasing, and it is the sense that survives in the modern dictionary definition of a college food buyer.

Synonyms: steward, purveyor, caterer