COMMISSARY

A 'commissary' is someone delegated by a superior to execute a duty or an office; in a formal, legal context, one who has received power from a legitimate superior authority to pass judgment in a certain cause or to take information concerning it.

Contents
Word history
Metonymic use
See also
Sources and references

Word history


The word is recorded in English since 1362, for "one to whom special duty is entrusted by a higher power". It derives from Medieval Latin ''commissarius'', from Latin ''commissus'' (pp. of committere) "entrusted,".
Originally its use was ecclesiastical, as in Commissary Apostolic or in charge of a Franciscan Commissariat of the Holy Land.
The military sense of "official in charge of supply of food, stores, transport" dates to 1489.

Metonymic use


In the United States armed forces and prisons, as well as the United Nations, it has the derived meaning of a store for provisions.
Modern commissaries are quite similar to civilian supermarkets, providing military members with most of the same groceries available in the U.S. economy regardless of where they are stationed world-wide. Commisaries sell only grocery articles; other items can be purchased at a base exchange. United States commissaries are under the ultimate control of the Defense Commissary Agency.
In the US film industry, the word commissary is often used to mean something which is a refectory.

See also



Commissar

Commissioner

Sources and references


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