1. A hawker or seller of books, essays, newspapers, etc.; especially in English use, someone who is employed by a religious group to travel around and to sell or to distribute Bibles and other religious writings: The colporteurs, Susan and Sally, were going from one house to another in Jan's neighborhood in an effort to sell their religious publications.
2. Etymology: from French colporter; probably from Old French comporter, "to carry"; influenced through folk etymology by porter à col, "to carry on one's neck". A French alteration influenced by col, "neck", from the idea that "peddlers carried their wares on trays suspended from straps around their necks".