Etymograph

English

launch

Launch comes from Middle English launchen ‘to throw as a lance’, from Old Northern French lanchier, a variant of Old French lancier, from lance.

  1. Old Northern Frenchc. 842–1400lanchier
  2. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500launchen‘to throw as a lance’
  3. Englishearliest quotation 1591launch

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Lineage

  1. Old Northern Frenchc. 842–1400lanchier
  2. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500launchen‘to throw as a lance’
  3. Englishearliest quotation 1591launch

Earliest quotation: 1591, Edmund Spenser: “And launch your hearts with lamentable wounds.”

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *pleh₂k- ‘to hit’

plant, peel, plague, fling, lancet, lancer, plaintive, 9 more

through Latin lancea ‘The Roman auxiliaries' short javelin’

lance, 6 more

Another origin of launch

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*pleh₂k-‘to hit’uncertain
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CElancea‘spear’uncertain
  3. Late Latinc. 200–600 CElanceāre‘to throw a spear’uncertain
  4. Old Galician-Portuguesec. 1100–1500lançar‘to throw’uncertain
  5. Portuguesec. 1500–presentsame form‘to launch’uncertain
  6. Malaymodernlancar‘quick, agile’uncertain
  7. Portuguesec. 1500–presentlancha‘barge, launch’
  8. Englishtodaylaunch

Spelling influenced by the verb above.

Today it means

verb To throw (a projectile such as a lance, dart or ball); to hurl; to propel with force.

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

Etymograph / Old Northern French lanchier / launch

Shirt and support for this word