English
picket
Picket comes from French piquet ‘stake, picket’, from piquer ‘to pierce’, and ultimately from Middle French picquer ‘to sting’.
- Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600picquer‘to sting’
- Frenchc. 1600–presentpiquer‘to pierce’
- French, derivedc. 1600–presentpiquet‘stake, picket’
- Englishearliest quotation 1729picket
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Earlier history uncertain.
Lineage
- Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600picquer‘to sting’
- Frenchc. 1600–presentpiquer‘to pierce’
- French, derivedc. 1600–presentpiquet‘stake, picket’
- Englishearliest quotation 1729picket
Earliest quotation: 1729, John Braithwaite, The History of the Revolutions in the Empire of Morocco: “[T]he Moors kept a good Guard all Night, and…”
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *bew-
bill, bowl, pose, purse, pocket, bulletin, buckle, pout, bouillon, bulla, pock, 16 more
through Frankish *pikkōn
through French piquer ‘to pierce’
through French piquet ‘stake, picket’
Today it means
noun A stake driven into the ground.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Middle French picquer / picket