English
missile
Missile comes from Latin missile ‘thrown weapon, projectile’, and goes back to mittō ‘to send’.
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEmittōas mittere‘to send’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEmissilis‘throwable, capable of being thrown’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEmissile‘thrown weapon, projectile’neuter of missilis
- Englishearliest quotation 1865missile
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
Earlier history uncertain.
Lineage
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEmittōas mittere‘to send’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEmissilis‘throwable, capable of being thrown’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEmissile‘thrown weapon, projectile’neuter of missilis
- Englishearliest quotation 1865missile
Earliest quotation: 1865, Walt Whitman, When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d: “And I saw askant the armies, / I saw…”
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *mey- ‘change’
mean, community, common, met, minute, communication, minister, meal, minor, ministry, menu, mutual, communicate, communist, immune, mere, min, ammunition, immunity, compromise, minus, municipality, communal, communism, communion, mural, ammo, mayhem, mole, moor, commune, remuneration, noodle, mite, monolith, minstrel, communiqué, munition, mitra, mitre, 72 more
through Proto-Indo-European *meyth₂- ‘exchange, remove’
message, mad, mute, mutant, madden, mutate, transmutation, commutative, commutation, molt, misnomer, moult, mutable, 17 more
through Latin mittō ‘to send’
committee, admit, mess, commission, commit, permission, transmission, transmit, admission, submission, premise, intermittent, dismiss, emit, emission, omit, amit, omission, commissary, commissar, permissive, remiss, 29 more
Today it means
noun Any object used as a weapon by being thrown or fired through the air, such as stone, arrow or bullet.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Latin mittō / missile