sutler

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The Word of the Day for October 3 is: 

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 dollar for 
a can of peaches, so the enlisted men had to be content with hardtack and 
jerky. 

Did you know?
          “For I shall sutler be / Unto the camp, and profits will accrue,” 
Pistol declares in Shakespeare’s _Henry V_. In 1599, the year the play was 
first performed, “sutler” 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, sutlers weren't usually the most popular fellows in a military camp, 
as a further look at the word's history reveals. The Dutch adopted "soeteler" 
from a Low German word meaning "sloppy worker," which itself traces to an even 
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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