Obs.; also acatour, achator, achater. [a. Anglo-Fr. achatour, earlier acatour (mod. Fr. acheteur):—late L. accaptātōr-em, n. of agent f. accaptāre: see prec. Originally a variant of ACATOUR, ACATER.] A purchaser or buyer of provisions; esp. the officer who purchased provisions for the royal household; a purveyor.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Prol., 568. A gentil Maunciple was ther of a temple Of which achatours mighten take exemple [other MSS. acatouris].
c. 1475. Lib. Nig. Ed. IV., in Househ. Ord. (1790), 22. The officers, ministers, achatours, purveyours, sergeaunts.
1601. Househ. Ord. Edw. II., 33. The flesh and the fish which the achators shal send into the larder.
1751. Chambers, Cycl., s.v., Pourveyor became a term so odious in times past, that, by stat. 36 Edw. 3. the heinous name Pourveyor was changed into that of achator, or buyer.
