(often humorous)a letter, especially a long or official one (常幽默)(尤指冗长的)信件;公函,公文 yet another missive from the Foreign Office. 来自外交部的另一封长函。 ■(Scots Law)a document in the form of a letter interchanged by the parties to a contract (苏格兰律)合同公函
语源
late Middle English (as an adjective, originally in the phrase letter missive): from medieval Latin missivus, from Latin mittere 'send'. The current sense dates from the early 16th cent