English

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Etymology 1

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From relay +‎ -er.

Noun

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relayer (plural relayers)

  1. One who, or that which, relays.
  2. An athlete who takes part in a relay race.
Translations
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Etymology 2

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From re- +‎ layer.

Verb

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relayer (third-person singular simple present relayers, present participle relayering, simple past and past participle relayered)

  1. To layer again.

French

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Etymology

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From re- +‎ laier (old dialect term: to leave).

Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /ʁə.lɛ.je/ ~ /ʁə.le.je/
  • Audio:(file)

Verb

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relayer

  1. (historical, intransitive) to relay, change horses
    • 1874, Barbey d'Aurevilly, ‘Le Rideau cramoisi’, Les Diaboliques:
      La rue, – où passaient chaque nuit deux diligences en sens inverses […] qui toutes deux s’arrêtaient à l’Hôtel de la Poste pour relayer, – la rue était silencieuse comme le fond d’un puits.
      The street – where every night two carriages passed in opposite directions, both of which stopped at the Hôtel de la Poste to change horses – the street was as silent as the bottom of a well.
  2. (transitive) to relieve, take over from
  3. (transitive) to replace
  4. (transitive) to transmit, relay (information)
  5. (reflexive) to take turns, to alternate

Conjugation

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This is a regular -er verb as far as pronunciation is concerned, but as with other verbs in -ayer (such as payer and essayer), the <y> of its stem may optionally be written as <i> when it precedes a silent <e> (compare verbs in -eyer, which never have this spelling change, and verbs in -oyer and -uyer, which always have it; verbs in -ayer belong to either group, according to the writer's preference).

Further reading

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