commissary

From Late Latin commissarius, from commissus, past participle of committō (“to commit, entrust to”). Doublet of commissar.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈkɒm.ɪ.s(ə)ɹi/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈkɑ.mɪˌsɛɹ.i/, /ˈkɑ.məˌsɛɹ.i/

  • Audio (Connecticut):

    (file)

• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /ˈkɔm.ə.sə.ɹi/
• Hyphenation: com‧mis‧sa‧ry

commissary (plural commissaries)

1. A store primarily serving persons in an institution, most often soldiers or prisoners.
2. An account which a prisoner uses to buy provisions, or the balance of that account.
   • 2018, Tayari Jones, An American Marriage, Oneworld Publications, page 183:

     “We tried to provide for you while you were in there. We may not have put as much on your commissary as your in-laws, but what we gave was more to us.”

3. A cafeteria at a movie studio.
4. One to whom is committed some charge, duty, or office, by a superior power; a commissioner.
   • a. 1631 (date written), J[ohn] Donne, “The Progress of the Soul”, in Poems, with Elegies on the Authors Death, London: M F for Iohn Marriot, , published 1633, →OCLC, stanza IV, page 3:

     Great Deſtiny the Commiſſary of God;

5. An officer of the bishop, who exercises ecclesiastical jurisdiction in parts of the diocese at a distance from the residence of the bishop.
   • 1726, John Ayliffe, Parergon Juris Canonici Anglicani: Or, A Commentary, by Way of Supplement to the Canons and Constitutions of the Church of England. , London: D. Leach, and sold by John Walthoe , →OCLC:

     It has been already hinted , that a Commissary, in Latin stiled Commisarius, is a Title of Ecclefiaftical Jurisdiction

6. An officer who supplies provisions to an army.
7. (Scots law) The judge in a commissary court.
8. A higher-ranking police officer.

(military shop):