courier

From a convergence of Middle English corour, currour, from Old French coreor, agent noun of corir (“to run”), and Middle English courier, a borrowing of Middle French courrier, from Italian corriere.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈkʊ.ɹi.ə/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈkʊɹ.i.ɚ/, /ˈkɝ.i.ɚ/

  • Audio (US):

    (file)

• (Scotland) IPA^(key): /ˈkʉː.ɹi.əɹ/
• Rhymes: -ʊɹiə(ɹ)
• Homophone: currier (without the foot-strut split or with the hurry–furry merger)

courier (plural couriers)

1. A person who delivers messages.

   Synonym: messenger

2. A company that delivers messages.
3. A company that transports goods.
4. (Internet) A user who earns access to a topsite by uploading warez.
   • 1999, Adrian Dunn, “Re: Using a scanned picture in your demo”, in comp.sys.ibm.pc.demos (Usenet):

     You can always find musicians. There are more trackers than coders, pixelers, organizers, couriers, and designers combined.

   • 2005, Paul Craig, Ron Honick, Mark Burnett, Software Piracy Exposed, page 2:

     These sites have enormous hard drives and bandwidth for couriers to distribute the software from one site to the next.

5. A person who looks after and guides tourists.

   Synonyms: guide, rep, tourist guide

   • 1914, G. K. Chesterton, “The Paradise of Thieves”, in The Wisdom of Father Brown, p. 29:

     "A courier!" cried Muscari, laughing. "Is that the last of your list of trades? And whom are you conducting?"

• courier bag

courier (third-person singular simple present couriers, present participle couriering, simple past and past participle couriered)

1. To deliver by courier.

   We'll have the contract couriered to you.

   • 2013 December 13, CollegeTimes Staff, “How Not To Destroy Your Reputation At The Office Work Party”, in CollegeTimes.com‎^[1]:

     Workcest is a huge no no, things will never go back to their easy ways and all of a sudden your report that’s meant to be couriered to Belfast is taking snail mail… through Thailand.

• “courier”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.

• Ricœur

• IPA^(key): /ˈkuɾjeɾ/ [ˈku.ɾjeɾ]
• Rhymes: -uɾjeɾ

courier m or f by sense (plural couriers)

1. courier