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 running messenger; a messenger sent in haste.
α. 1382. Wyclif, 2 Chron. xxx. 6. Curours wenten with letters. Ibid., Jer. ii. 23. A liȝt corour [1388 swifte rennere].
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., VIII. xv. (1495), 321. Mercurius is callyd in fables the currour of goddes.
c. 1410. Love, Bonavent. Mirr., x. (Gibbs MS.). xv dayes iournes of a comyn currour [ed. 1530 renner].
1485. Caxton, Paris & V. (1868), 55. He delyuerd his letter to a courrour.
1530. Palsgr., 211/2. Currar, a man that ronneth, currevr.
1568. Grafton, Chron., 821. He was the common currer and dailie messenger betwene them.
1609. Heywood, Brit. Troy, X. xiii. 229. A winged Curror.
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, III. 60/1. The Currour at Arms, or Foot Messengers of Arms.
β. 1563–87. Foxe, A. & M. (1684), III. 449. If his Lord Ambassadour would write by that Currior.
1579. Fenton, Guicciard., X. (1599), 434. The Pope sent to him dayly curriers and postes.
1610. Holland, Camden’s Brit., II. 126. Spying agents and curreours.
1670. Cotton, Espernon, II. VII. 338. Dispatching away an express Currier the next morning.
1718. Freethinker, No. 27. 189. A Courrier or a Running-Footman.
1727. A. Hamilton, New Acc. E. Ind., I. xiii. 149. Those Curriers are called Dog Chouckies.
1815. Wellington, in Gurw., Disp., XII. 239. I will write to his Lordship by the next Courier.
1848. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., I. 580. The Commons examined the couriers who had arrived from the West, and instantly ordered a bill to be brought in for attainting Monmouth of high treason.
† 2. Mil. A light horseman acting as scout or skirmisher. Obs. Cf. AVANT-COURIER.
1523. Ld. Berners, Froiss., I. xlvii. 67. They met with a xxv. currours of the frenchmen.
1548. Hall, Chron., 220. Kyng Edward … dispatched certayn currers on light horses.
1598. Hakluyt, 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.
1603. Drayton, 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.
1770. Ann. Reg., 106. Naples. The Duke of Dorset arrived here on Thursday last, and his courier, a Piedmontese. Ibid. (1820), 976. Bartolomeo Bergami was taken into her majesty’s service as courier.
1838. Murray’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.
1867. Miss 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.]
1798. Canning & Frere, in Anti-Jacobin, xxxvi. (1852), 215. Couriers and Stars, Sedition’s Evening Post.
Hence (nonce-wds.) Couriering vbl. sb. Courierish a., characteristic of a courier.
1807. Sir R. Wilson, Jrnl., in Life (1862), II. viii. 386. I have done with couriering if a soldier can fix a resolution.
1879. Sala, Paris Herself Again (ed. 4), II. 36. Using in his courierish conscientiousness about fifty words.
