denvoi

Denvoi is a masculine French noun meaning the act of sending or dispatching something to a recipient. Etymology traces to the Old French envoi, with denvoi appearing in some historical texts as a variant spelling or archaic form. In contemporary French, the standard term for dispatch is envoi or expédition; denvoi is now largely literary or archival and is rarely used in everyday language.

In historical administrative and legal writings, denvoi sometimes described the forwarding of documents or responsibilities from one authority to another. For example, a denvoi of records would refer to their transmission to a different office.

In literary or scholarly contexts, denvoi may appear as an archaic or regional variant of envoi. In English-language sources, denvoi is rarely used; envoi remains the standard term, and envoi also denotes a short stanza at the end of a ballad in poetry, a usage unrelated to the French noun.

The sense of the word in law and administration has largely fallen out of use; modern texts would simply say expédition or envoi depending on context. See also envoi.