▪ I. courtier1
(ˈkɔətɪə(r))
Forms: 3–4 courteour(e, 4 kourteour, 5 courtyour, -teyer, teer, coortyowre, cowrtyoure, corteore, 5–6 courtyer, 6 -tyar, -ter, -ture, cortier, 6– courtier.
[app. repr. an AF. *corte(i)our = OF. *cortoyeur, f. cortoyer to be at or frequent the court: see court v.]
1. One who frequents the court of a sovereign; an attendant at court.
| c 1290 S. Eng. Leg. I. 114/254 A-ȝen þe proute courteoures. c 1350 Will. Palerne 342 My fader..knew of kourt þe þewes, for kourteour was he long. c 1440 Gesta Rom. ii. lii. 372 (Add. MS.) Prelates of causes temporall, courteers, Iurrours, and wily men. 1481 Caxton Reynard (Arb.) 44 Reynard the foxe is now asquyer and a courtyer. 1538 Starkey England ii. i. 159 To many courtyarys and idul servantys. 1598 Shakes. Merry W. iii. iii 66 Thou wouldst make an absolute Courtier. 1621 Lady M. Wroth Urania 535 A delicate Courtier, curious in her habites..did all things fit for a Court, as well as any braue Lady could doe. 1720 Gay Poems (1745) II. 83 False is the cringing Courtier's plighted word. 1847 L. Hunt Jar Honey ix. (1848) 122 Chaucer was a courtier, and a companion of princes. |
b. transf.
| 1601 Shakes. Twel. N. iii. i. 97 That youth's a rare Courtier. 1838 Lytton Alice 13 We have now a new vicar, and I must turn courtier in my old age. |
c. Eng. Hist.
| 1872 Hallam Const. Hist. (1876) II. x. 269 The new parliament consisted of courtiers, as the Cromwell party were always denominated. |
† d. A court-card. Obs. rare.
| 1658 Osborn Adv. Son (1673) 179 A Courtier kept out, and a mean trump foisted in, where the best is required. |
† 2. One who courts; a wooer. Obs.
| 1606 Shakes. Ant. & Cl. ii. vi. 17 Courtiers of beautious freedome. a 1641 Suckling (J.), There was not..a greater courtier of the people than Richard the IIId. 1665 Boyle Occas. Refl. v. ix. (1675) 333 Courtiers of Applause. 1766 T. Amory Buncle (1770) III. 183 The husband generally proves a very different man from the courtier. |
3. Comb., as courtier-company; courtier-like adj. and adv.
| 1598 Florio, Cortegianesco, courtier-like. 1621 Lady M. Wroth Urania 268 Courtier-like dainty Courtship. 1735 Collect. Epigrams cclvii. (Jod.), He courtier-like cry'd, prythee, get thee gone. 1858 Gladstone Homer III. 503 A spirit of courtierlike adulation. 1878 Browning Poets Croisic 42 The courtier-company, to whom he passed The paper. |
▪ II. † ˈcourtier2 Obs.
Also courteer.
[f. court n.2]
The driver of the cart called a ‘court’.
| 1630 Ms. Acc. St. John's Hosp., Canterb., For breade and beere for the courtiers that brought in our bricke and tyles iijd. 1638 Ibid. For the courteer to drinke ijd. |