Sutler - Encyclopedia Britannica 1911

GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES

SUTLER, a camp-follower who sells provisions, liquor and other things to an army in the field, in camp or in quarters. The word was one of the numerous naval and military terms adapted in English from the Dutch, where it appears as soetelaar or zoetelaar. It meant originally one who does dirty work, a drudge, a scullion, and is derived from zoetelen, to foul, sully, a word cognate with "suds," hot soapy water, "seethe," to boil, ° and "sodden."