avoyer

English

Etymology

Borrowed from French avoyer; see also avoué, avouer.

Noun

avoyer (plural avoyers)

1. (obsolete or historical) A chief magistrate of a free imperial city or canton of Switzerland.
   • 1800, Joseph Planta, The History of the Helvetic Confederacy, Volume 2, page 257:

     The avoyer in office presided both in the council and senate, in each of which he had no regular, but only a casting vote: the great seal of the republic was in his custody; and a provincial jurisdiction was annexed to his station.

   • 1809, Unnamed translator, Lazzaro Spallanzani, Travels in the Two Sicilies and Some Parts of the Apennines, in John Pinkerton, A General Collection of the Best and Most Interesting Voyages and Travels in All Parts of the World, Volume 5, page 717,

     The reigning avoyer, with a ſceptre in his hand, pronounces an harangue; then delivering up the ſceptre and ſeals, reſigns his dignity, and receives the thanks of the aſſembly, by the mouth of the attorney-general, for his zeal and attention during the year of his government.

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “avoyer”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)