[Fr. estafette, ad. It. staffetta, dim. of staffa stirrup, f. OHG. stapho step.] A mounted courier.
1792. Boothby, Burke’s App. Whigs, 84, note. An estafette was despatched on the part of our Ministers at the Hague, requiring Marshal Bender to suspend his march.
1812. Wellington, in Gurw., Disp., VIII. 649. They can secure the services of the Estafette … only by placing him in the centre of the escort.
1858. Carlyle, Fredk. Gt. (1865), II. V. ii. 77. Diplomatic correspondence, carried once by breathless estaffettes.
Hence Estafetted ppl. a., provided with estafettes; in quot. app. taken as ‘provided with arrangements for posting.’
1837. Sir F. Palgrave, Merch. & Friar (1844), 18. The best estafetted road, the road to Rome.
