Dictionary

inspectioneer en · NOUN · etymology 1

Etymology

From inspection + -eer.

Meanings

1. (nonstandard) One who carries out an inspection; an inspector.
   • But linguistic “inspectioneers” who take the trouble of comparing Murray and Bradley's account of the word with that of Webster must wonder why the latter ignored or refused to follow the New English Dictionary's lead. 1969, Adriaan Jacob Barnouw, Monthly Letters on the Culture and History of the Netherlands, page 275:
   • Javert was the very incarnation of devotion to duty, fictionally, but he was an unstable character compared to some of our inspectioneers in government. 1946, United States. Congress, Congressional Record: Proceedings and Debates..., page 10654:

Forms

inspectioneer en · NOUN · etymology 2

Etymology

By mistaken association with inspection.

Meanings

1. Synonym of specksioneer (“chief harpooner”).
   • His grandfather had used it to hunt the Greenland whale in the days when the whaling-ships came to the islands for their best inspectioneers. 1958, Blackwood's Magazine, volume 283, page 9:
   • He said that all the ship's provisions and stores would be locked up, and the keys given to the inspectioneer […] 1922, Charles Edward Smith, From the Deep of the Sea, page 55:

Forms

Synonyms

specksioneer