catchpole

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The Word of the Day for April 10 is:

catchpole   \KATCH-poal\   noun 
     : a sheriff's deputy; especially : one who makes arrests for failure to 
pay a debt

Example sentence:
     David knew that it must be the catchpole knocking at his door, so he 
quickly threw on his shoes and coat and snuck out the back.

Did you know?
     Imagine chasing a chicken around the barnyard. Catching it would be no 
mean feat. And chasing down someone who owes you money is pretty challenging 
too. It's no surprise then that these two taxing tasks come together in 
"catchpole," which derives from a word that literally means "chicken chaser" -- 
Anglo-French "cachepole." Before it referred to the debt police, "catchpole" 
was used more generally for any tax collector. That's the sense demonstrated in 
a 12th-century homily about the apostle Matthew:  "Matheus thet wes cachepol 
thene he iwende to god-spellere" ("Matthew who was a catchpole until he turned 
into a writer of the Gospel").





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