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courser

 [kawr-ser, kohr-]   Origin

cours·er

1   [kawr-ser, kohr-]
noun
1.
a person or thing that courses.
2.
a dog for coursing.
Origin:
1585–95; course + -er1

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Courser is always a great word to know.
So is doohickey. Does it mean:
a gadget; dingus; thingumbob.
a printed punctuation mark (‽), available only in some typefaces, designed to combine the question mark (?) and the exclamation point (!), indicating a mixture of query and interjection, as after a rhetorical question.
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Dictionary.com Unabridged

cours·er

2   [kawr-ser, kohr-]
noun Literary.
a swift horse.
Origin:
1250–1300; Middle English < Anglo-French, Old French coursier < Vulgar Latin *cursārius, equivalent to Latin curs(us) course + -ārius -ary; see -er2

cours·er

3   [kawr-ser, kohr-]
noun
any of several swift-footed, ploverlike birds of the genera Cursorius and Pluvianus, chiefly of the desert regions of Asia and Africa.
Origin:
1760–70; irregular < Neo-Latin cursōrius fitted for running, equivalent to Latin cur(rere) to run + -sōrius, for -tōrius -tory1; compare course
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Collins
World English Dictionary
courser1 (ˈkɔːsə)
 
—n
1.  a person who courses hounds or dogs, esp greyhounds
2.  a hound or dog trained for coursing

courser2 (ˈkɔːsə)
 
—n
literary a swift horse; steed
 
[C13: from Old French coursier, from courscourse]

courser3 (ˈkɔːsə)
 
—n
a terrestrial plover-like shore bird, such as Cursorius cursor (cream-coloured courser), of the subfamily Cursoriinae of desert and semidesert regions of the Old World: family Glareolidae, order Charadriiformes
 
[C18: from Latin cursōrius suited for running, from cursuscourse]

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Etymonline
Word Origin & History

courser
large, powerful horse," c.1300, from O.Fr. corsier, from V.L. *cursarius, from L. cursus (see course).
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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Encyclopedia Britannica
Encyclopedia

courser

any of 9 or 10 species of Old World shorebirds belonging to the family Glareolidae (order Charadriiformes), which also includes the pratincoles. Most live in semideserts, where they chase insects afoot; they can, however, fly strongly with their short wings. The best-known species is the cream-coloured courser (Cursorius cursor) of Africa, a pale-brown bird with white underparts, bold eye stripes, and black wing tips. The Indian courser (C. coromandelicus) is brown with a strong face pattern. The bronze-winged courser (Rhinoptilus chalcopterus), largest of several species in sub-Saharan Africa, frequents woodlands and is chiefly nocturnal. It is about 30 cm (12 inches) long.

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Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online.
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