English
stylet
Stylet comes from French stylet ‘stiletto’, from Italian stilo ‘needle, stylus’, and ultimately from Latin stilus ‘a stake, pale, spike’.
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEstilus‘a stake, pale, spike’
- Italianc. 1300–presentstilo‘needle, stylus’
- Italian, derivedc. 1300–presentstiletto‘stiletto, dagger’
- Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600stilet‘stiletto’
- Frenchc. 1600–presentstylet‘stiletto’
- Englishearliest quotation 2017same form
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Earlier history uncertain.
Lineage
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEstilus‘a stake, pale, spike’
- Italianc. 1300–presentstilo‘needle, stylus’
- Italian, derivedc. 1300–presentstiletto‘stiletto, dagger’
- Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600stilet‘stiletto’
- Frenchc. 1600–presentstylet‘stiletto’
- Englishearliest quotation 2017same form
Earliest quotation: 2017, Danna Staaf, Squid Empire: “Even octopuses without stylets almost certainly retain the molecular…”
Equivalent to style + -et
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *(s)teyg- ‘to be sharp’
attack, stock, stick, tiger, stigma, stitch, etiquette, detach, instigate, tigress, 9 more
through Latin stilus ‘a stake, pale, spike’
through Italian stiletto ‘stiletto, dagger’
Today it means
noun An engraving tool, a stylus.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Latin stilus / stylet