bassist

Etymology

It is formed from English bass + -ist,^{[2][3][4][5][6]} from the musical noun, not the fish.^[3][2] Etymonline notes that the word was used earlier in German.^[3] The musical noun comes from the adjective meaning low, from Late Latin bassus (“short, low”), its musical sense influenced by Italian basso.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A bass singer: 1824, according to Merriam-Webster.^[4][6] The OED first finds the word in 1870, in Wessely's German–English dictionary,^[2] and Dictionary.com dates it to 1865–70.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The sense of a player of a bass instrument, especially the double bass, is recorded from 1909, in the supplement to the Century Dictionary.^[2][3] By 1958 it was also used for a player of the electric bass guitar,^[3] and modern dictionaries define it as a player of either.^[7][8][4]

Timeline

• 1824 – a bass singer.^[4] The OED dates the word to 1870.^[2]
• 1909 – a player of a bass instrument, especially the double bass.^[2][3]
• 1958 – a player of the bass guitar.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A musician who plays the double bass or the bass guitar: The bassist tuned up while the drummer set out his cymbals.^[7][8][4][2]
2. A bass singer.^[4][6]

Related words

• bass
• basso
• base

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ a b c Gove, Philip Babcock, ed. (1961), Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam
7. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
8. ^ a b The Chambers Dictionary (2008), 11th ed., Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap