commissary

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English commissarie, also comissarie,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Medieval Latin commissārius (“a delegate, commissioner; one entrusted with a charge”),^{[5][6][3][4][7][8]} from Latin commissus (“entrusted”), the past participle of committō (“to entrust”), the source of commit, with the suffix -ārius.^[5][6][4][3] In British sources the Medieval Latin word is frequent from the 13th century, also for a bishop's judicial delegate; it named a chancellor's deputy in a university from the late 13th century.^[5][5] The Middle English Dictionary also names Old French comissaire as a source,^[2] and the OED notes that some English forms overlap with forms recorded in Anglo-Norman and in Middle French, and that the word may partly be a borrowing from those languages.^[5] Related words in other languages are Spanish comisario (1383), Italian commissario (1293) and Dutch commissaris (1353).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

A cleric or official who exercised church jurisdiction as a bishop's representative: about 1390, in the Vernon manuscript of Langland's Piers Plowman (a text of before 1376).^[5] Barnhart gives the Piers Plowman record as before 1376, with the sense of a delegate entrusted with certain duties.^[3]

Semantic evolution

From 1395 the word also meant any deputy commissioned by a higher authority,^[5] and Etymonline notes that the early uses were mainly ecclesiastical.^[6] In Scotland it named a burgh's representative at the convention of burghs (1424) and a commissioner (1428); from 1567 it also named the judge of the commissary courts set up after the Reformation in place of the church courts.^[5] At Oxford it was the chancellor's deputy, the vice chancellor (1431).^[5] The military sense, an officer in charge of food, stores and transport for soldiers, appears in Caxton's translation of Christine de Pisan (1489).^[5][3][6] Johnson (1755) gave three senses: a delegate or deputy, an ecclesiastical title, and an officer who lists an army's numbers and arranges its provisions.^[9] In North America the word moved from the officer to the store: a shop at a military post from 1846 in the OED^[5] (1882 in Etymonline and Barnhart),^[6][3] and then a restaurant or cafeteria in a workplace, especially a film studio, from 1916 in the OED,^[5] 1924 in Etymonline and 1929 in Barnhart.^[6][3]

Timeline

• c. 1390 – a bishop's representative exercising church jurisdiction.^[5]
• 1395 – a deputy or delegate of a higher authority.^[5]
• 1424 – in Scotland, a burgh's representative at the convention of burghs.^[5]
• 1431 – at Oxford, the chancellor's deputy.^[5]
• 1489 – an army officer in charge of food and supplies.^[5][3][6]
• 1567 – in Scotland, the judge of a commissary court.^[5]
• 1846 – in North America, a shop on a military post.^[5]
• 1883 – in the United States, food supplies, provisions.^[5]
• 1916 – a cafeteria in a workplace, especially a film studio.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A store selling food and supplies, especially on a military base or in a camp.^[10][11][5]
2. A cafeteria or lunchroom, especially in a film or television studio.^[10][11][5]
3. A person to whom a higher authority gives a special duty; a deputy or delegate.^[10][4][11]
4. In the Church of England, an official who represents a bishop in a distant part of the diocese or while he is absent.^[4][11][5]
5. (military) An officer in charge of supplying soldiers with food and stores.^[11][5][9]

Word family

• subcommissary

Related words

• commit
• commission
• commissioner
• commissar
• commissariat

Usage notes

The OED records a separate commissary in anatomy, from 1577 to 1654, an alteration of commissure after the suffix -ary.^[5]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
10. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
11. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins