Insurance and contracts

The list a contract is read with. Near the end is le courtier, the broker — and the English word that looks identical is the one word that will not do. « A courtier » is somebody who attends a royal court, which French calls un courtisan. The two are not even related: le courtier is built on old French courre, to run — the man who *runs between* buyer and seller — while « courtier » is from la cour, the court. And the English word for the job has its own picture: « broker » is Anglo-Norman brocour, the man who broaches a cask, the middleman of the wine trade. So three words, three images — one running, one tapping a barrel, one standing about in a palace — and only the first two name the same person.