messenger
/ˈmɛs.ən.d͡ʒɚ/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.95 in modern English
12
Scrabble Score
9
Letters
3
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
The secretary bird.
noun
The supporting member of an aerial cable (electric power or telephone or data).
noun
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.
noun
noun
A forerunner or harbinger.
noun
A piece of paper, etc., blown up a string to a kite.
Example Sentences
- "The Messenger under the joint Commission of Bankruptcy might have seized the Whole, if they had remained in their Warehouse"
- "The 4 primary messengers include ^([sic]) AOL Instant Messenger, ICQ, Yahoo! Messenger, and MSN Messenger."
- "Have them meet you on your favorite messenger program. IMs provide a means of instant chat without waiting on someone to respond back to you."
- "a messenger of doom"
- "I'll messenger over the signed documents."
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”).
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: messengere, messanger, messagier
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈmɛs.ən.d͡ʒɚ/
- British English: /ˈmɛs.ən.d͡ʒə/