messenger
n. countablen. a person who carries a message or a package from one place to another. You can also use this word for apps on your phone that let you send texts to friends.
n. a person who carries a communication or object from one party to another; also refers to a software application designed for real-time digital communication.
The messenger delivered the package to the office this morning.
I will send you the details of the meeting through a messenger app later today.
In ancient times, a royal messenger would travel for days across difficult terrain to deliver urgent news to the king's allies.
From Middle English messengere, messingere, messangere, from Old French messanger, a variant of Old French messagier (French messager), equivalent to message + -er. Doublet of messager. Displaced native Old English boda (“messenger, envoy”) and ǣrendraca (“messenger, ambassador”). For the replacement of -ager with -enger, -inger, -anger, compare passenger, harbinger, scavenger, porringer. This development may have been merely the addition of n, or it may have resulted due to contamination from other suffixes such as Middle English -ing and the rare Old French -ange, -enc, -inge, -inghe (“-ing”) for Old French -age (“-age”).
Commonly used in modern contexts to refer to instant messaging software.