Etymograph

English

fust

Fust comes from Old French fust ‘wood’, and goes back to Latin fūstis ‘knobbed stick, cudgel, club’.

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEfūstis‘knobbed stick, cudgel, club’
  2. Old Frenchc. 842–1400fust‘wood’
  3. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500same form
  4. Englishearliest quotation c. 1599–1602same form

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Earlier history uncertain.

Lineage

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEfūstis‘knobbed stick, cudgel, club’
  2. Old Frenchc. 842–1400fust‘wood’
  3. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500same form
  4. Englishearliest quotation c. 1599–1602same form

Earliest quotation: c. 1599–1602, William Shakespeare, The Tragicall Historie of Hamlet: “Sure he that made vs with ſuch large diſcourse…”

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *bʰew- ‘to hit’

big, beat, bold, bug, beam, beetle, bile, paddock, footer, beal, poutine, 5 more

through Old French fust ‘wood’

foist

Another origin of fust

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEfūstis‘knobbed stick, cudgel, club’uncertain
  2. Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEfusta‘beam (of wood)’uncertain
  3. Portuguesec. 1500–presentsame formuncertain
  4. Englishtodayfust

Possibly from Portuguese fusta (‘fust’), from Latin fusta (‘beam (of wood)’), from fūstis (‘knobbed stick, cudgel, club’); compare Middle French fuste.

Today it means

noun A strong musty smell; mustiness.

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

Etymograph / Latin fūstis / fust

Shirt and support for this word