commissariat

Borrowed from French commissariat.

commissariat (plural commissariats)

1. A supply of food.
   • 1887, Harriet W. Daly, Digging, Squatting, and Pioneering Life in the Northern Territory of South Australia, page 79:

     We gave such dinner-parties as our commissariat allowed; the menu was simplicity itself - " blanket " for every course, cunningly disguised as soup, entree, and, I was going to say, joint.

2. The department of an army that supplies provisions for the troops.
3. (historical) A department of the government of the Soviet Union in the early period of its existence.
4. A territorial and governmental unit of Colombia at some points in its history.

• marcatissimo

From commissaire +‎ -at.

• IPA^(key): /kɔ.mi.sa.ʁja/

• Audio

  (file)

commissariat m (plural commissariats)

1. commissionership
2. police station

   Synonym: poste de police

• “commissariat”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.