1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Sutler

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 soetetaar 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.”