courtier

Borrowed from Anglo-Norman corteour, Old French cortoiier, from cort (“court”).

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

courtier (plural courtiers)

1. A person in attendance at a royal court.
   • c. 1600, William Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act V, Scene 1,

     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, The Line of Beauty, Bloomsbury, 2005, Chapter 12,

     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.

• court
• courtesan

• outcrier

• IPA^(key): /kuʁ.tje/

• Audio

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courtier m (plural courtiers, feminine courtière)

1. broker; stockbroker

• “courtier” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).