colporter

English

Etymology

Anglicization of colporteur, from French.

Noun

colporter (plural colporters)

1. Alternative form of colporteur

French

Etymology

From Latin comportare, from comportō (“to carry”), with a change to col- to differentiate from comporter.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kɔl.pɔʁ.te/

• Audio:

  (file)

Verb

colporter

1. to peddle; to hawk
2. (figurative, often derogatory) to spread (gossip, accusation)

Conjugation

infinitive	simple	colporter
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	colportant /kɔl.pɔʁ.tɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		colporté /kɔl.pɔʁ.te/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	colporte /kɔl.pɔʁt/	colportes /kɔl.pɔʁt/	colporte /kɔl.pɔʁt/	colportons /kɔl.pɔʁ.tɔ̃/	colportez /kɔl.pɔʁ.te/	colportent /kɔl.pɔʁt/
	imperfect	colportais /kɔl.pɔʁ.tɛ/	colportais /kɔl.pɔʁ.tɛ/	colportait /kɔl.pɔʁ.tɛ/	colportions /kɔl.pɔʁ.tjɔ̃/	colportiez /kɔl.pɔʁ.tje/	colportaient /kɔl.pɔʁ.tɛ/
	past historic2	colportai /kɔl.pɔʁ.te/	colportas /kɔl.pɔʁ.ta/	colporta /kɔl.pɔʁ.ta/	colportâmes /kɔl.pɔʁ.tam/	colportâtes /kɔl.pɔʁ.tat/	colportèrent /kɔl.pɔʁ.tɛʁ/
	future	colporterai /kɔl.pɔʁ.tə.ʁe/	colporteras /kɔl.pɔʁ.tə.ʁa/	colportera /kɔl.pɔʁ.tə.ʁa/	colporterons /kɔl.pɔʁ.tə.ʁɔ̃/	colporterez /kɔl.pɔʁ.tə.ʁe/	colporteront /kɔl.pɔʁ.tə.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	colporterais /kɔl.pɔʁ.tə.ʁɛ/	colporterais /kɔl.pɔʁ.tə.ʁɛ/	colporterait /kɔl.pɔʁ.tə.ʁɛ/	colporterions /kɔl.pɔʁ.tə.ʁjɔ̃/	colporteriez /kɔl.pɔʁ.tə.ʁje/	colporteraient /kɔl.pɔʁ.tə.ʁɛ/
(compound tenses)	present perfect	present indicative of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect	imperfect indicative of avoir + past participle
	past anterior2	past historic of avoir + past participle
	future perfect	future of avoir + past participle
	conditional perfect	conditional of avoir + past participle
subjunctive		que je (j’)	que tu	qu’il, qu’elle	que nous	que vous	qu’ils, qu’elles
(simple tenses)	present	colporte /kɔl.pɔʁt/	colportes /kɔl.pɔʁt/	colporte /kɔl.pɔʁt/	colportions /kɔl.pɔʁ.tjɔ̃/	colportiez /kɔl.pɔʁ.tje/	colportent /kɔl.pɔʁt/
	imperfect2	colportasse /kɔl.pɔʁ.tas/	colportasses /kɔl.pɔʁ.tas/	colportât /kɔl.pɔʁ.ta/	colportassions /kɔl.pɔʁ.ta.sjɔ̃/	colportassiez /kɔl.pɔʁ.ta.sje/	colportassent /kɔl.pɔʁ.tas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	colporte /kɔl.pɔʁt/	—	colportons /kɔl.pɔʁ.tɔ̃/	colportez /kɔl.pɔʁ.te/	—
compound		—	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	—	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	—
1 The French gerund is usable only with the preposition en.
2 In less formal writing or speech, these tenses may be found to have been replaced in the following way: past historic → present perfect past anterior → pluperfect imperfect subjunctive → present subjunctive pluperfect subjunctive → past subjunctive (Christopher Kendris [1995], Master the Basics: French, pp. 77, 78, 79, 81).

Conjugation of colporter (see also Appendix:French verbs)

Derived terms

• colporteur
• colporteuse

Related terms

• comporter

Descendants

• German: kolportieren

Further reading

• “colporter”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
• Walther von Wartburg (1928–2002) “comportare”, in Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, volume 2: C Q K, page 987