Forms: (7 envoyé, -ée), envoy(e, 7– envoy. [app. an alteration (in the latter part of 17th c.) of Fr. envoyé (pa. pple. of envoyer to send), which had previously been adopted unchanged.]
1. A public minister sent by one sovereign or government to another for the transaction of diplomatic business. Now applied esp. to diplomatic ministers of the second rank (‘ministers plenipotentiary’) as distinguished from those of the highest rank (‘ambassadors’), and those of the third rank (‘chargés d’affaires’).
The term envoy extraordinary, formerly denoting a minister charged with a special or temporary mission, is now merely the fuller designation of the ‘envoy’ in the narrower sense = minister plenipotentiary.
[1660. Evelyn, Mem. (1857), I. 359. The Envoyée of the king of Poland.
1664. Marvell, Corr., Wks. 1872–5, II. 172. He hathe taken care to supply it in the meantime by his Extraordinary Envoyè.
1691. Rycaut, in Gentl. Mag., May (1786), 396/1. To treat the Turkish envoyées so ill, as [etc.].]
1666. Pepys, Diary, 11 July. A galliott … that is going to carry the Savoy Envoye [? meant for envoyé] over.
1667. Evelyn, Mem. (1857), II. 31. To the audience of a Russian Envoy in the Queen’s presence-chamber.
1710. in Lond. Gaz., No. 4688/1. The Earl of Stair, her Britannick Majesty’s Envoy-Extraordinary to King Augustus.
1716. Lady M. W. Montague, Lett., I. vi. 18. Madame … the wife of our king’s envoy from Hanover.
1779. J. Moore, View Soc. Fr., II. lxviii. 175. I have been introduced to all of them by Mr. Harris, his Majesty’s envoy extraordinary.
1803. Med. Jrnl., IX. 453. A correspondence which I have begun, by means of the British Envoy.
1860. Motley, Netherl. (1868), I. i. 3. Sir Edward Stafford, English envoy in Paris.
1875. H. Reeve, in Encycl. Brit. (ed. 9), I. 657. Diplomatic envoys are of three ranks … 1. Ambassadors … 2. Envoys extraordinary or ministers plenipotentiary, accredited to sovereigns … 3. Chargés d’affaires.
2. In wider sense: An agent, commissioner, deputy, messenger, representative.
[1643. Denham, Dido, Poems (1668), 134. Jove’s Envoyé through the Air Brings dismal tydings.]
1696. Tate & Brady, Ps. cvi. 16. God’s Envoy Moses they oppose.
1712. Blackmore, Creation, VI. 678. Where [sc. in the brain] their Report the Vital Envoys make.
1820. W. Irving, Sketch Bk., I. 99. Men … have been envoys from England to ransack the poles.
1859. Thackeray, Virgin., vi. 48. The intrepid young envoy made his way from Williamsburg almost to the shores of Lake Erie.
3. attrib.
a. 1711. Ken, Christophil, Poet. Wks. 1721, I. 487. An Envoy-Star, whose Ray Shou’d shew the world where Jesus lay.
