purvey

English

Alternative forms

• puruey (alternative typography, 14th-15th centuries)

Etymology

From Middle English purveyen, from Anglo-Norman purveer, purveir et al., Old French porveeir, porveoir, from Latin prōvidēre (“to provide”). Compare provide, a doublet.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /pəˈveɪ/, /pəːˈveɪ/
• (US) IPA^(key): /pɚˈveɪ/
• Rhymes: -eɪ

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Verb

purvey (third-person singular simple present purveys, present participle purveying, simple past and past participle purveyed)

1. (intransitive, obsolete) To prepare in advance (for or to do something); to plan, make provision.
   • 1485, Sir Thomas Malory, “j”, in Le Morte Darthur, book IV:

     A sayd the kynge / syn ye knowe of your aduenture puruey for hit / and put awey by your craftes that mysauenture / Nay said Merlyn it wylle not be / soo he departed from the kynge

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

2. (transitive) To furnish or provide.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto III”, in The Faerie Queene. , London: [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 15:

     Giue no ods to your foes, but do puruay / Your selfe of sword before that bloudy day:

   • 2005, Lesley Brown, trans. Plato, Sophist, 223d:

     Those who sell their own products are distinguished from purveyors, who purvey what others produce.

3. (transitive) To procure; to get.
   • 1819 December 20 (indicated as 1820), Walter Scott, Ivanhoe; a Romance. , volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co. , →OCLC:

     I mean to purvey me a wife after the fashion of the children of Benjamin.

Related terms

• purveyor
• purview

Translations