messenger

Meaning

Noun

1. One who brings messages.
2. The secretary bird.
3. The supporting member of an aerial cable (electric power or telephone or data).
4. A person appointed to perform certain ministerial duties under bankrupt and insolvent laws, such as to take charge of the estate of the bankrupt or insolvent.
5. An instant messenger program.
6. (figuratively) A forerunner or harbinger.
7. A light scudding cloud preceding a storm.
8. A piece of paper, etc., blown up a string to a kite.
9. A light line with which a heavier line may be hauled e.g. from the deck of a ship to the pier.
10. A weight dropped down a line to close a Nansen bottle.
11. (Scotland) A messenger-at-arms.
12. A pin which travels across the pin deck to knock over another pin, usually for a strike.

Verb

To send something by messenger.

Synonyms

envoy

courier

herald

emissary

ambassador

runner

🏃

orderly

representative

carrier

apostle

servant

errand

go-between

deliverer

mission

angel

👼

office boy

attendant

peon

bearer

forerunner

harbinger

announcer

delegate

errand boy

reporter

commissionaire

mounted messenger

mounted scout

delegation

dispatch rider

errand-boy

mediator

page

office-boy

delivery boy

special messenger

bring news

one sent

instant messenger

going as envoy

IM

dispatch carrier

general factotum

goanna

news-carrier

urgent messenger

semiochemical

reunner

person following orders

Translations

messager

messaggero

Bote

mensajero

mensageiro

Kurier

bode

corriere

envoyé

boodschapper

gezant

απεσταλμένος

enviado

afgezant

Pronounced as (IPA)

/ˈmɛs.n̩.d͡ʒɚ/

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English: messengere

Cognate with French: messager

Cognate with Middle English: -ing

Cognate with Old French: -ange

Cognate with Old French: -age

In summary

From Middle English messengere, messingere, messangere, from Old French messanger, a variant of Old French messagier (French messager), equivalent to message + -er. Doublet of messager.
Displaced native Old English boda (“messenger, envoy”) and ǣrendraca (“messenger, ambassador”).
For the replacement of -ager with -enger, -inger, -anger, compare passenger, harbinger, scavenger, porringer. This development may have been merely the addition of n, or it may have resulted due to contamination from other suffixes such as Middle English -ing and the rare Old French -ange, -enc, -inge, -inghe (“-ing”) for Old French -age (“-age”).