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Missive vs Epistle - What's the difference?

missive | epistle |

In obsolete terms the difference between missive and epistle

is that missive is one who is sent; a messenger while epistle is to write; to communicate in a letter or by writing.

As nouns the difference between missive and epistle

is that missive is a written message; a letter, note or memo while epistle is a letter, or a literary composition in the form of a letter.

As an adjective missive

is specially sent; intended or prepared to be sent.

As a verb epistle is

to write; to communicate in a letter or by writing.

missive

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • (formal) A written message; a letter, note or memo.
  • * 2008 , Claire Armistead, The Guardian , 25 Oct 2008:
    • 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 , Herman Melville, Moby-Dick , Chapter 71:
    • "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.
  • (obsolete) One who is sent; a messenger.
    • 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.’

    Adjective

    (-)
  • Specially sent; intended or prepared to be sent.
    • a letter missive
    (Ayliffe)
  • missile
  • * Dryden
    • The missive weapons fly.
    ----

    epistle

    English

    (wikipedia epistle)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A letter, or a literary composition in the form of a letter.
  • * 1748 — (David Hume), , Section III, § 5.
    • he may be hurried from this plan by the vehemence of thought, as in an ode, or drop it carlessly, as in an epistle or essay
  • (Christianity) One of the letters included as a book of the New Testament.
  • * 1956 — Werner Keller (translated by William Neil), The Bible as History , revised English edition, Chapter 41, page 358
    • Even last century scholars had begun to search for the cities in Asia Minor whose names have become so familiar to the Chistian world through the Acts of the Apostles and the Epistles of St. Paul.

    Derived terms

    * (l) * (l)

    Related terms

    * (l) * (l) * (l) * (l) * (l) * (l) * (l) * (l) * (l) * (l) * (l) * (l) * (l)

    Verb

    (epistl)
  • (obsolete) To write; to communicate in a letter or by writing.
    • (Milton)