Envoy
nounA messenger or representative, especially one sent by a government on a diplomatic mission.
How to spell envoy
5 letters · 2 syllables
How to pronounce envoy
Say the part in capitals loudest.
What does envoy mean?
- nounA messenger or representative, especially one sent by a government on a diplomatic mission.
Envoy in a sentence
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The president sent a special envoy to negotiate the ceasefire.
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As trade envoy, she spent months travelling between the two capitals.
Where does envoy come from?
Language of origin: French
This word came into English from the French envoyé, the past participle of the verb envoyer, which means 'to send'. That French verb traces back to the Latin phrase in viam, literally 'on the way' or 'on the road', built from in 'on' and via 'road'. So an envoy is at heart someone who has been 'sent on their way' to carry a message or represent a ruler. English adopted it in the late 1600s, originally describing a diplomatic agent dispatched on a special mission, and the diplomatic sense has stuck ever since. The same via root sits inside familiar words such as 'voyage' and 'deviate', which is a useful reminder that the spelling ends in -voy, not -voi.
How the word is built
- en- (in/on, from Latin in)
- voy (way/road, from Latin via)
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