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. 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. 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.

Hyphenated as

mes‧sen‧ger

Pronounced as (IPA)

/ˈmɛs.n̩.d͡ʒɚ/

Etymology

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”).