English

Alternative forms

• commissionnaire

Noun

commissionaire ‎(plural commissionaires)

1. One entrusted with a (small) commission, such as an errand; especially, an attendant or subordinate employee in a public office, hotel, etc.
2. (Britain) A uniformed doorman.
   • 2004, Alan Hollinghurst, The Line of Beauty, Bloomsbury, 2005, Chapter 8,

     When the day came Nick turned up early at the bank and waited under a palm tree in the atrium. People hurried in, nodding to the commissionaire, who still wore a tailcoat and a top hat.

3. (law) An undisclosed agent under European civil law.