missive

English

Etymology

15th century; from Medieval Latin missīvus, from mittō (“to send”).

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /ˈmɪsɪv/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

Noun

missive (plural missives)

1. (formal) A written message; a letter, note or memo.
   • c. 1606–1607, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Anthonie and Cleopatra”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene ii], page 346, column 1:

     [Y]ou / Did pocket vp my Letters: and with taunts / Did gibe my Miſive out of audience.

   • December 13 2021, Molly Ball, Jeffrey Kluger, Alejandro de la Garza, “Elon Musk: Person of the Year 2021”, in Time Magazine‎^[1]:

     The juvenile missives from his unmistakably phallic Twitter avatar came days after one of his rockets launched NASA’s first antiasteroid planetary-defense test […]

   • 25 October 2008, Claire Armistead, The Guardian‎^[2]:

     The Madonna letters, which are interspersed with more personal missives in this curious epistolary memoir, accumulate into a rap about the downsides of celebrity - the problems of ageing, of invaded privacy, of becoming vain and impetuously adopting children from other continents.

   • 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, chapter 71, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC:

     "Curses throttle thee!" yelled Ahab. "Captain Mayhew, stand by now to receive it"; and taking the fatal missive from Starbuck's hands, he caught it in the slit of the pole, and reached it over towards the boat.

2. (in the plural, Scots law) Letters sent between two parties in which one makes an offer and the other accepts it.
3. (obsolete) One who is sent; a messenger.
   • c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals):

     Whiles I stood rapt in the wonder of it came missives from the King, who all hailed me ‘Thane of Cawdor,’ by which title these Weird Sisters saluted me and referred me to the coming on of time with ‘Hail king that shalt be.’

Translations

a written message

• Bulgarian: послание (bg) n (poslanie)
• Catalan: missiva (ca) f
• French: missive (fr) f
• German: Sendschreiben (de) n, Schrieb (de) m, Schreiben (de) n
• Greek: επιστολή (el) f (epistolí), σημείωμα (el) n (simeíoma)
• Icelandic: langt og virðulegt bréf (is) n, langur og virðulegur pistill m
• Italian: missiva (it) f
• Latin: epistola f, litterae (la) f pl
• Polish: pismo (pl), list (pl), posłanie (pl) n
• Portuguese: missiva (pt) f
• Russian: посла́ние (ru) n (poslánije)
• Spanish: misiva (es) f
• Ukrainian: посла́ння n (poslánnja)
• Vietnamese: please add this translation if you can

Adjective

missive (not comparable)

1. Specially sent; intended or prepared to be sent.

   a letter missive

   • 1726, John Ayliffe, Parergon Juris Canonici Anglicani: Or, A Commentary, by Way of Supplement to the Canons and Constitutions of the Church of England. […], London: […] D. Leach, and sold by John Walthoe […], →OCLC:

     Delivery of the Letters Missive

2. (obsolete) Serving as a missile; intended to be thrown.
   • 1700, [John] Dryden, “Cymon and Iphigenia, from Boccace”, in Fables Ancient and Modern; […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC, page 564:

     In vain with Darts a diſtant War they try, / Short, and more ſhort the miſſive weapons fly.

Derived terms

• letter missive

Related terms

• See mission for terms etymologically related to send

References

• Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “missive”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

French

Pronunciation

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

missive f (plural missives)

1. missive

Further reading

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

Italian

Noun

missive f

1. plural of missiva