different between messenger vs messager

English

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 English boda (“messenger, envoy”) and 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 (“-ing”) for Old French -age (“-age”).

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /?m?s.n?.d???/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?m?s.n?.d???/
• Hyphenation: mes?sen?ger

Noun

messenger (plural messengers)

1. One who brings messages.
2. (nautical) A light line with which a heavier line may be hauled e.g. from the deck of a ship to the pier.
3. The supporting member of an aerial cable (electric power or telephone or data).
4. (law) 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.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Bouvier to this entry?)

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Tomlins to this entry?)

5. (computing) An instant messenger program.
6. A forerunner.
7. A light scudding cloud preceding a storm.
8. A piece of paper, etc., blown up a string to a kite.
9. (oceanography) A weight dropped down a line to close a Nansen bottle.
10. The secretary bird.
11. (Scotland) A messenger-at-arms.

Derived terms

• instant messenger
• raven-messenger

Translations

Verb

messenger (third-person singular simple present messengers, present participle messengering, simple past and past participle messengered)

1. (transitive) To send something by messenger.

   I'll messenger over the signed documents.

English

Etymology

message +? -er

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?m?s?d??(?)/

Noun

messager (plural messagers)

1. One who sends a message.
   • 2010, Carol M. Lehman, Debbie D. Dufrene, Business Communication (page 163)

     Some of the most avid text messagers are clustered in Southeast Asia.

2. (obsolete) A messenger.

References

• messager in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.

French

Etymology

From Old French messagier, from message.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /me.sa.?e/

Noun

messager m (plural messagers, feminine messagère)

1. A messenger; one who carries a message.

Derived terms

• messager secrétaire

Descendants

• ? Italian: messaggero

Further reading

• “messager” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Anagrams

• germasse