courtier

English

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkɔɹtiɚ/
• IPA^(key): /ˈkɔːtɪə/
• IPA^(key): /ˈko(ː)ɹtiɚ/
• IPA^(key): /ˈkoətɪə/
• Rhymes: -ɔː(ɹ)tiə(ɹ)

Noun

courtier (plural courtiers)

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

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

Related terms

• court
• courtesan

Translations

attendant at a royal court

• Bulgarian: придворен (bg) m (pridvoren)
• Catalan: cortesà (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 廷臣 (zh) (tíngchén), 朝臣 (zh) (cháochén)

• Czech: dvořan m
• Dutch: hoveling (nl) m
• Esperanto: kortegano
• Finnish: hoviherra (fi), hovimies (fi)
• French: courtisan (fr) m, femme de la cour f
• German: Höfling (de) m
• Greek: αυλικός (el) m (avlikós)
• Hungarian: udvaronc (hu)
• Irish: cúirteoir m
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Italian: cortigiano (it) m
• Japanese: 廷臣 (ていしん, teishin)
• Korean: 정신 (ko) (jeongsin)
• Latin: aulicus m
• Macedonian: дворјанин m (dvorjanin)
• 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)
• Spanish: cortesano m
• Swedish: hovman c

a person who flatters in order to seek favour

• Greek: κόλακας (el) m (kólakas)
• Polish: pochlebca (pl) m, przydupas (pl) m
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Romanian: curtezan (ro) m
• Russian: подхали́м (ru) m (podxalím), льстец (ru) m (lʹstec)

Anagrams

• outcrier

---

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.