Etymograph

English

fusee

Fusee comes from French fusil ‘rifle, gun’, and goes back to Late Latin focus ‘fire’.

  1. Late Latinmodernfocus‘fire’
  2. Frenchc. 1600–presentfusil‘rifle, gun’
  3. Englishearliest quotation 1790fusee

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Lineage

  1. Late Latinmodernfocus‘fire’
  2. Frenchc. 1600–presentfusil‘rifle, gun’
  3. Englishearliest quotation 1790fusee

Earliest quotation: 1790, Helen Maria Williams, Letters Written in France: “He had not been many days at the chateau,…”

Linked words

through French fusil ‘rifle, gun’

fusilier, 2 more

Another origin of fusee

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEfūsus‘spindle’
  2. Frenchc. 1600–presentfusée‘rocket (vehicle)’
  3. Englishtodayfusee

Today it means

noun Synonym of fusil, a light musket or firelock.

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / Late Latin focus / fusee

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