English
bassoon
Bassoon comes from Italian basso ‘bass’, and goes back to Late Latin bassus ‘thick, fat, stumpy, short, low, base’.
- Late Latinc. 200–600 CEbassus‘thick, fat, stumpy, short, low, base’
- Italianc. 1300–presentbasso‘bass’
- Italian, derivedc. 1300–presentbassone
- Frenchc. 1600–presentbasson
- Englishearliest quotation 1798bassoon
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Earlier history uncertain.
Lineage
- Late Latinc. 200–600 CEbassus‘thick, fat, stumpy, short, low, base’
- Italianc. 1300–presentbasso‘bass’
- Italian, derivedc. 1300–presentbassone
- Frenchc. 1600–presentbasson
- Englishearliest quotation 1798bassoon
Earliest quotation: 1798, Samuel Taylor Coleridge: “Higher and higher every day, / Till over the…”
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *gʷem- ‘step’
come, coming, event, revenue, adventure, avenue, convention, venue, diabetes, inventory, cum, convenience, advent, intervene, inventor, invent, souvenir, provenance, pug, convene, contravention, revenant, circumvention, contravene, quim, 53 more
through Proto-Hellenic *gʷə́tis ‘step’
through Ancient Greek βάσις ‘stepping, step’
through Late Latin bassus ‘thick, fat, stumpy, short, low, base’
through Italian basso ‘bass’
Today it means
noun A musical instrument in the woodwind family, having a double reed and playing in the tenor and bass ranges.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Late Latin bassus / bassoon