intelligencer
(ɪnˈtɛlɪdʒənsə(r))
[f. intelligence n. + -er: perh. after obs. F. intelligencier ‘an Intelligencer; an intelligence-giuer; a spy’ (Cotgr.); cf. It. intelligentiere ‘an intelligencer’ (Florio).]
One who conveys intelligence or information: a. spec. One employed to obtain secret information, an informer, a spy, a secret agent.
| 1581 Savile Tacitus, Agric. (1622) 184 Being depriued by intelligencers and spies of the commerce of hearing and speaking together. 1596 Nashe Saffron Walden 124 The hellish detested Iudas name of an Intelligencer. 1644 Chas. I. in Ellis Orig. Lett. Ser. ii. III. 317 Wee desire you to keep forth Scouts and Intelligencers to give you timely advertisement, if he shall advance Westward. 1658 Osborn Adv. Son (1673) 85 It is an Office unbecoming a Gentleman to be an Intelligencer, which in real truth is no better than a Spie. 1788 Jefferson Writ. (1859) II. 444 He has no diplomatic character whatever, but is to receive eight thousand livres a year, as an intelligencer. 1796 Burke Regic. Peace ii. Wks. VIII. 241 All the spies, all the intelligencers, actually or late in function. 1874 Motley Barneveld I. i. 68 He was all-sufficient as a spy and intelligencer. |
b. A bringer of news; a messenger; an informant; a newsmonger.
| 1632 Lithgow Trav. ix. 386 They are curious, and great lovers of novelties..great intelligencers, and lovers of histories. 1633 T. Adams Exp. 2 Peter iii. 6 He [Noah] sends out his intelligencers, the raven and the dove. 1651 C. Cartwright Cert. Relig. i. 21 Think ye, that those ministring Angels who are called Intelligencers, give them no intelligence? 1712 Steele Spect. No. 427 ¶2 The many Stories which every Body furnishes her with..make her the general Intelligencer of the Town of all that can be said by one Woman against another. 1780 Cowper Lett. 10 Dec., Wks. 1837 XV. 62 My intelligencer with respect to Lady Cowper's legacy proved to be mistaken. 1863 Pilgrimage Prairies II. 3 Bryce and I eagerly followed our intelligencer to assure ourselves of the truth of his report. |
c. fig. Applied to things.
| a 1586 Sidney Arcadia ii. Wks. 1725 I. 203 Whose eyes, being his diligent intelligencers, could carry unto him no other news, but discomfortable. 1649 Bulwer Pathomyot. i. iii. 13 The Nerves..are the Intelligencers and way of conveyance untill they come into the moveable parts. 1687 Settle Refl. Dryden 76 Oliver's Nose was no doubt a wonderful intelligencer. 1769 E. Hargrove Knaresbro. ii. (1798) 99 The subscription book to this library is of great use as an intelligencer to know what company are at the place. 1877 Dowden Stud. Lit. (1890) 247 The avenues between the senses and the imagination are traversed to and fro by swift and secret intelligencers. |
† d. As the title of a newspaper, or other publication. Obs.
| 1641 R. Brathwait (title) Mercurius Britannicus: or, the English Intelligencer. 1659 (title) The Parliamentary Intelligencer. 1728 Swift's Lett. (1766) II. 89 Desire her to shew it to the author of the Intelligencer, and to print it if he thinks fit. 1801 F. Barrett (title) The Magus, or Celestial Intelligencer; being a complete system of Occult Philosophy. |