corriere

Forms

corriere m (plural corrieri)^[1] Old and literary forms include Old Italian corriero and Old Italian corrieri, and Jacopone has Old Italian corrère.^[2][3][4][5]

Etymology

It is from Italian correre (“to run”) + -iere.^{[6][1][4][7][3]} Devoto noted that the suffix, of French origin, spread in military and administrative words such as artigliere and portiere.^[8] DEI and the GDLI think the word probably came by way of Old Occitan corrieu, from corre (“to run”);^[2][5] Medieval Latin documents of Genoa (1162), Bologna (1252) and Piacenza (13th century) already have curerius or currerius.^[2][5]

correre continues Latin currō (“to run”), which gave the verb for “run” in nearly every Romance language.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is a Sienese text by Ruggieri Apugliese, from the middle of the 13th century.^[10] The Old Italian senses it lists are a runner or racer, a messenger carrying things or news, a scout sent ahead of an army, a servant running before his master, and a kind of official.^[10] DELI's first date, 1282 in Ristoro, is for a person who carries letters and dispatches.^[11][12]

Semantic evolution

Ristoro names couriers by land and by water among travellers.^[5] In the 16th century the word also meant the postal service itself (before 1556, G. Della Casa). From the 18th century it named newspapers: Il corrier zoppo at Lugano in 1757 and Il corrier letterario at Venice in 1765, a use that survives in titles such as Corriere della Sera.^[11][6] The phrase a volta di corriere, “by return of post”, first meant handing the answer to the same messenger.^[7]

The GDLI's definition runs from the old bearer of letters and the public postal and coach service to today's carrier who takes goods from town to town for others; the modern dictionaries add the courier firm and its van.^[5][7][6] A corriere diplomatico carries official correspondence between a government and its embassies, and a corriere della droga smuggles drugs.^[3][7] From the 19th century the word names the plovers of the genus Charadrius, shore birds that run fast.^[2][5][13]

DEI holds that French courrier (about 1300) was taken from Italian, and Wiktionary derives the Middle French form corier from the Italian word, and German Kurier came from French.^[2][12][1] Wiktionary also traces English courier to the Middle French word, while Etymonline derives it through Anglo-French from Old French coreor.^[1][14]

Timeline

• 1162 – Medieval Latin curerius is recorded at Genoa.^[2]
• Mid-13th century – Ruggieri Apugliese uses Italian corriere.^[10]
• 1282 – Ristoro uses the word for a carrier of letters.^[11][6]
• About 1300 – French courrier is recorded.^[2][12]
• Before 1556 – G. Della Casa uses the word for the postal service.^[11]
• 1757 – Il corrier zoppo is published at Lugano.^[11]
• 19th century – The word is first recorded as the name of the plover.^[2]
• 1879 – German Corriere is recorded for a courier.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. A courier company: a private firm that carries goods and mail for others; also its service or vehicle: Ti mando il pacco con il corriere.^[6][3][4][7]
2. (historical) A person who carried letters, dispatches and parcels from place to place: corriere diplomatico, a diplomatic courier;^{[6][3][15][7]} corriere della droga, a drug mule.^{[6][3][15][7]}
3. A boat carrying the mail.^[6][4][15]
4. (bureaucracy) The day's mail, or the mail from a given place.^[6][3][7]
5. (literary) A messenger; now in the titles of newspapers and magazines.^[6][4][3]
6. (zoology) A plover of the genus Charadrius: corriere grosso, the ringed plover;^[15][7][6] corriere piccolo, the little ringed plover.^[15][7][6]

Word family

• corrierino

Related words

• correre
• corriera
• corsa
• French courrier
• English courier

Usage notes

The plural is corrieri;^{[1][16][4][3]} corriera (a coach or bus) is a separate noun, and corriera as the feminine of corriere is uncommon.^{[1][16][4][3]} A volta di corriere means “by return”, at once.^[7][17]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1123
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d e f g Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
5. ^ a b c d e f Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
8. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier, p. 119
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ a b c Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
11. ^ a b c d e Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
12. ^ a b c d Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it
13. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
14. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
15. ^ a b c d e Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
16. ^ a b Wikizionario (Italian Wiktionary), it.wiktionary.org
17. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli