sutler

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The Word of the Day for October 3 is:=20

sutler   \SUT-ler\   noun
          : a civilian provisioner to an army post often with a shop on =
the post

Example sentence:
          The sutler who provided the company's provisions wanted a doll=
ar for a can of peaches, so the enlisted men had to be content with hard=
tack and jerky.=20

Did you know?
          =E2=80=9CFor I shall sutler be / Unto the camp, and profits wi=
ll accrue,=E2=80=9D Pistol declares in Shakespeare=E2=80=99s _Henry V_. =
In 1599, the year the play was first performed, =E2=80=9Csutler=E2=80=9D=
 was quite new to English. It was adapted from the Dutch word "soeteler,=
" which meant about the same thing as our modern term. Even then, sutler=
s weren't usually the most popular fellows in a military camp, as a furt=
her look at the word's history reveals. The Dutch adopted "soeteler" fro=
m a Low German word meaning "sloppy worker," which itself traces to an e=
ven older verb that meant "to do sloppy work" or "to dirty." Perhaps the=
 snide designation was inspired by the fact that the traditional sutler =
followed troops and sold them supplies at hugely inflated prices.





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