porteur de contraintes

French

Etymology

Originally, an ellipsis of legal title "huissier porteur de contrainte des gabelles" ("court server of warrant concerning the gabelle"), with the gabelle being a particularly unpopular and frequently shirked tax on salt in the ancien régime.[1] "Huissier" is itself a further ellipsis of "huissier de justice" ("court usher").

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /pɔʁ.tœʁ də kɔ̃.tʁɛ̃t/

Noun

porteur de contraintes m (plural porteurs de contraintes)

  1. (historical, law) A legal officer responsible for delivering a court order concerning debts, such as seizure of property or arrest, against a delinquent taxpayer; in particular, one who has violated the gabelle.
    • 1901, Adolphe Orain, Contes de l’Ille-et-Vilaine, page 207:
      C’était un bien drôle de petit homme que le père Langevin, tailleur et porteur de contraintes au Grand-Fougeray.
      He was quite an odd little man, that Father Langevin, mason and "porteur de contraintes" in Grand-Fougeray

See also

References

  1. ^ Lenglet, Dominique (July 2021), “Porteur de contraintes”, in A la recherche du temps perdu.... (in French): “Créé sous Louis XIV au départ l'appellation exacte est "huissier porteur de contrainte des gabelles" ― Created by Louis XIV, initially the exact title was "huissier porteur de contrainte des gabelles"”

Further reading

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