| 释义 |
▪ I. courier, n.|ˈkʊrɪə(r), ˈkʊərɪə(r)|
Forms: α. 4 curour, corour, 4–5 currour(e, 5 -owre, -ur, corrour(e, courrour, 6 currar, courar, 6–7 curror, -er, 7 courror. β. 6–7 currior, 6–8 -ier, 7 -eour, 7–8 courrier, 7– courier.
[Here are combined two words: (1) ME. corour, currour:—OF. coreor, F. coureur runner = Pr. and Sp. corredor, It. corridore:—late L. curritōr-em, f. currĕre to run: (2) courier, 16th c. F. courier, F. courrier, ad. It. corriere, in med.L. currerius a professional runner, post, messenger, f. It. corre, L. currĕre. The two words remain distinct in French: but in Eng. the earlier word, which by the 16th c. had the forms curror, currer, coalesced with the later under the forms currior, currier, in the 17th c. conformed to F. spelling as courier.]
1. a. A running messenger; a messenger sent in haste.
α1382Wyclif 2 Chron. xxx. 6 Curours wenten with letters. ― Jer. ii. 23 A liȝt corour [1388 swifte rennere]. 1398Trevisa Barth. De P.R. viii. xv. (1495) 321 Mercurius is callyd in fables the currour of goddes. c1410Love Bonavent. Mirr. x. (Gibbs MS.), xv dayes iournes of a comyn currour [ed. 1530 renner]. 1485Caxton Paris & V. (1868) 55 He delyuerd his letter to a courrour. 1530Palsgr. 211/2 Currar, a man that ronneth, currevr. 1568Grafton Chron. 821 He was the common currer and dailie messenger betwene them. 1609Heywood Brit. Troy x. xiii. 229 A winged Curror. 1688R. Holme Armoury iii. 60/1 The Currour at Arms, or Foot Messengers of Arms.
β1563–87Foxe A. & M. (1684) III. 449 If his Lord Ambassadour would write by that Currior. 1579Fenton Guicciard. x. (1599) 434 The Pope sent to him dayly curriers and postes. 1610Holland Camden's Brit. ii. 126 Spying agents and curreours. 1670Cotton Espernon ii. vii. 338 Dispatching away an express Currier the next morning. 1718Freethinker No. 27. 189 A Courrier or a Running-Footman. 1727A. Hamilton New Acc. E. Ind. I xiii. 149 Those Curriers are called Dog Chouckies. 1815Wellington in Gurw. Disp XII. 239, I will write to his Lordship by the next Courier. 1848Macaulay Hist. Eng. I. 580 The..couriers who had arrived from the West.
b. A messenger for an underground or espionage organization.
1929C. Mackenzie (title), Three couriers. 1943G. Greene Ministry of Fear iii. ii. 188 He's one of the used, the blackmailed. That doesn't mean..that he isn't the courier. 1957H. Roosenburg Walls came tumbling Down 8 She..became a courier..for a resistance group that transmitted intelligence..to the Dutch government in London. 1959Encounter Dec. 53/2 The life of Communist couriers in the 'twenties and early 'thirties.
†2. Mil. A light horseman acting as scout or skirmisher. Obs. Cf. avant-courier.
1523Ld. Berners Froiss. I. xlvii. 67 They met with a xxv. currours of the frenchmen. 1548Hall Chron. 220 Kyng Edward..dispatched certayn currers on light horses. 1598Hakluyt Voy. I. 21 They [the Tartars] haue 60000 Courriers, who being sent before vpon light horses..will in the space of one night gallop three dayes iourney. 1603Drayton Bar. Wars i. xliii, Most fit for scouts and currers, to descry.
3. A servant employed by a traveller or travelling party on the continent, having the duty of making all the arrangements connected with the journey.
Orig. (as still in F. courrier), a mounted messenger sent in advance of the carriage to secure relays of horses at each stage and arrange for accommodation at the inns.
1770Ann. Reg. 106 Naples. The Duke of Dorset arrived here on Thursday last, and his courier, a Piedmontese. 1820Ibid. 976 Bartolomeo Bergami was taken into her majesty's sevice as courier. 1838Murray's Handbk. N. Germ. p. xxi, A courier..is a most useful person. His duties consist in preceding the carriage at each stage, to secure relays of post-horses on those routes where horses are scarce. 1867M. E. Braddon Run to Earth III. i. 2 The door was opened by..Paulina's confidential courier and butler.
4. A frequent title of newspapers, as The Liverpool Courier. [So F. Courrier.]
1798Canning & Frere in Anti-Jacobin xxxvi. (1852) 215 Couriers and Stars, Sedition's Evening Post.
5. attrib. and Comb.
1874Lady C. Schreiber Jrnl. (1911) I. 272 Saw there old Hockster, the courier-dealer. 1958‘N. Shute’ Rainbow & Rose i. 4 In 1942 I had met him in Cairo when he was flying a courier service to England. 1963P. MacTyre Fish on Hook vii. 111 Is he running a courier service, or an escape route, as part of a spy system?
Hence (nonce-wds.) ˈcouriering vbl. n. ˈcourierish a., characteristic of a courier.
1807Sir R. Wilson Jrnl. in Life (1862) II. viii. 386, I have done with couriering if a soldier can fix a resolution. 1879Sala Paris Herself Again (ed. 4) II. 36 Using in his courierish conscientiousness about fifty words.
▪ II. courier, v.
[f. the n.]
intr. and trans. ‘To act or attend as a courier’ (Webster 1934); to travel as a courier.
1921W. R. Benét in F. Wilkinson New Voices 372 Marquises and admirals and barons of delight All courier his chariot. 1959Encounter Dec. 53/2 Padmore couriered across Europe in the service of the Party, organising and taking risks. 1962P. Purser Peregrination 22 i. 8 I'd..couriered two parties to a Berlin festival. |