Envoy \En"voy\, n. [F. envoy['e] envoy, fr. envoyer to send;
pref. en- (L. in) + voie way, L. via: cf. F. envoi an envoy
(in sense 2). See Voyage, and cf. Invoice.]
1. One dispatched upon an errand or mission; a messenger;
esp., a person deputed by a sovereign or a government to
negotiate a treaty, or transact other business, with a
foreign sovereign or government; a minister accredited to
a foreign government. An envoy's rank is below that of an
ambassador.
2. [F. envoi, fr. envoyer to send.]
An explanatory or
commendatory postscript to a poem, essay, or book; -- also
in the French from, l'envoi.
The envoy of a ballad is the ``sending'' of it
forth. --Skeat.
Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)
|