messenger

Meanings

Noun

• One who brings messages.
• A light line with which a heavier line may be hauled e.g. from the deck of a ship to the pier.
• The supporting member of an aerial cable (electric power or telephone or data).
• 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.
• An instant messenger program.
• A forerunner.
• A light scudding cloud preceding a storm.
• A piece of paper, etc., blown up a string to a kite.
• A weight dropped down a line to close a Nansen bottle.
• The secretary bird.
• A messenger-at-arms.

Verb

• To send something by messenger.

Origin

• From Middle English messengere, messingere, messangere, from Old French messanger, a variant of Old French messagier (French messager), equivalent to message + -er. messager.
• Displaced native Old English boda ("messenger, envoy") and Old English ærendwreca ("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 for Old French -age.