Etymograph

English

rocket

Rocket comes from Italian rocchetta ‘incendiary rocket’, from rocca ‘a distaff’, and ultimately from Proto-Germanic *rukkô.

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*rukkô‘a distaff, a staff with flax fibres tied loosely to it, used in spinning thread’reconstructed
  2. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*rokkōreconstructed
  3. Lombardicmodernrocko‘spinning wheel’
  4. Italianc. 1300–presentrocca‘a distaff’
  5. Italian, derivedc. 1300–presentrocchetta‘incendiary rocket’
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1973rocket

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

Earlier history uncertain.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*rukkô‘a distaff, a staff with flax fibres tied loosely to it, used in spinning thread’reconstructed
  2. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*rokkōreconstructed
  3. Lombardicmodernrocko‘spinning wheel’
  4. Italianc. 1300–presentrocca‘a distaff’
  5. Italian, derivedc. 1300–presentrocchetta‘incendiary rocket’
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1973rocket

Earliest quotation: 1973, Elizabeth Mavor, A Green Equinox: “The Burmese nurse who'd gone with her was crying,…”

The story

For the meaning development, compare fuselage, ultimately from Latin fūsus (‘spindle, spinning wheel’).

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *h₃rewk- ‘to dig, till’

arroyo, rog, 6 more

through Italian rocca ‘a distaff’

ratchet

Another origin of rocket

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*ǵʰer-‘to be excited, bristly’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Indo-European, derivedc. 4500–2500 BCE*ǵʰḗr‘hedgehog’reconstructed
  3. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*hērreconstructed
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEēr‘hedgehog’
  5. Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEeruca‘colewort, rocket’
  6. Italianc. 1300–presentruchetta‘arugula, rocket’
  7. Frenchc. 1600–presentroquette
  8. Englishtodayrocket

Today it means

noun A cylindrical projectile that can be fired to a great height through combustion, (specifically) a type of firework of this form, typically exploding with light and colour; a skyrocket.

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

Etymograph / Proto-Germanic *rukkô / rocket

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