courtier

courtier

English

Etymology

From Middle English courteour, from Anglo-Norman corteour, Old French cortoiier, from cort (“court”).

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈkɔɹtiɚ/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈkɔːtɪə/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• (rhotic, without the horse–hoarse merger) IPA^(key): /ˈko(ː)ɹtiɚ/
• (non-rhotic, without the horse–hoarse merger) IPA^(key): /ˈkoətɪə/
• Rhymes: -ɔː(ɹ)tiə(ɹ)

Noun

courtier (plural courtiers)

1. A person in attendance at a royal court.
   • c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act V, scene i]:

     By the Lord, Horatio, this three years I have taken note of it, the age is grown so picked that the toe of the peasant comes so near the heel of the courtier he galls his kibe.

2. A person who flatters in order to seek favour.
   • 2004, Alan Hollinghurst, chapter 12, in The Line of Beauty, New York: Bloomsbury, OCLC 1036692193:

     People shouted cheerfully and flinched, but the Prime Minister didn't flinch, she fortified her voice with a firm diapason as if rising to the challenge of a rowdy Chamber. Around her her courtiers started like pheasants.

3. (entomology) Any of various nymphalid butterflies of the Asian genus Sephisa.

Related terms

• court
• courtesan

Translations

attendant at a royal court

Belarusian: прыдво́рны m (prydvórny), прыдво́рная f (prydvórnaja) Bulgarian: придво́рен (bg) m (pridvóren), придво́рна (bg) f (pridvórna) Catalan: cortesà (ca) m Chinese: Mandarin: 廷臣 (zh) (tíngchén), 朝臣 (zh) (cháochén) Czech: dvořan (cs) m, dvořanka f Danish: hofmand c Dutch: hoveling (nl) m Esperanto: kortegano Finnish: hoviherra (fi), hovimies (fi) French: courtisan (fr) m German: Höfling (de) m Greek: αυλικός (el) m (avlikós) Ancient: αὐλικός m (aulikós) Hungarian: udvaronc (hu) Irish: cúirteoir m Italian: cortigiano (it) m Japanese: 廷臣 (ていしん, teishin) Korean: 정신(廷臣) (ko) (jeongsin) Latin: aulicus m, cūriālis m Macedonian: дворјанин m (dvorjanin), дворјанка f (dvorjanka) Middle English: courteour Norwegian: Bokmål: hoffmann m Occitan: cortesan m Polish: dworzanin (pl) m, dworka f, dwórka (pl) f Portuguese: cortesão (pt) m Romanian: curtean (ro) m Russian: придво́рный (ru) m (pridvórnyj), придво́рная (ru) f (pridvórnaja), царедво́рец (ru) m (caredvórec) Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: дво̀ранин m, дворанка f Roman: dvòranin (sh) m, dvoranka f Slovak: dvoran m, dvoranka f Slovene: dvorjan m, dvorjanka f Spanish: cortesano m Swedish: hovman c Ukrainian: придво́рний m (prydvórnyj), придво́рна (uk) f (prydvórna) Vietnamese: triều thần (vi), cận thần (vi)

a person who flatters in order to seek favour

German: Schmeichler (de) m Greek: κόλακας (el) m (kólakas) Polish: pochlebca (pl) m, przydupas (pl) m Romanian: curtezan (ro) m Russian: подхали́м (ru) m (podxalím), льстец (ru) m (lʹstec) Vietnamese: nịnh thần (vi)

Anagrams

• outcrier

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French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kuʁ.tje/

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

courtier m (plural courtiers, feminine courtière)

1. broker; stockbroker

Further reading

• “courtier”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.