avoyer

Borrowed from French avoyer; see also avoué, avouer.

avoyer (plural avoyers)

1. (obsolete or historical) A chief magistrate of various free imperial cities or cantons of Switzerland.

   the avoyer of Bern

   the avoyer of Lucerne

   • 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.

• “avoyer”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

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avoyer m (plural avoyers)

1. avoyer

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