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cassette

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Etymology and origin of the English word cassette

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1793 Southey
Borrowed from
French cassette
Ultimate origin
Latin capsa

Pronunciation

  • /kəˈsɛt/, /kæˈsɛt/[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French cassette (“little box”),[2][3][4][5][6][7][8] a diminutive of casse (“box”) with the suffix -ette.[9][7][10] Barnhart and Merriam-Webster derive it through Middle French casset, a diminutive of Old French casse (“box”) in its northern form,[4][3][6] the source of case2;[5][6] this comes from Latin capsa (“box, case”),[4][5][6] which Etymonline takes from capiō (“to take, hold”).[5] The OED instead takes the French word from Italian cassetta.[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A small box, a casket: 1793, in a letter of Southey.[2][4][3]

Semantic evolution

The word passed to technical containers: a holder for photographic plates is recorded from 1875, in a translation of H. W. Vogel's Chemistry of Light and Photography, and was later used for a lightproof container of film and for an X-ray plate.[2][4] In ceramics it was a saggar from 1909.[2] The sense now best known, a closed case of magnetic tape on two spools that only has to be slipped into a recorder, dates from 1960,[2][4][5] and Dictionary.com dates this use to 1955–60.[9] In genetics a cassette has been a block of genes that can be moved as a unit since 1977.[2] The old sense "casket" is now rare.[7]

Timeline

  • 1793 – a small box, a casket.[2][4]
  • 1875 – a holder for photographic plates.[2][4]
  • 1909 – in ceramics, a saggar.[2]
  • 1960 – a container of magnetic tape.[2][4][5]
  • 1977 – in genetics, a movable block of genes.[2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A small flat case holding magnetic tape wound on two spools, played in a tape recorder or tape deck: a box of old cassettes from the 1980s.[8][3][2]
  2. A lightproof holder for photographic film or plates, or for the film in X-ray photography.[3][8][2]
  3. Any case that can easily be loaded into or taken out of a machine.[3]
  4. (genetics) A block of genes that can be inserted or moved as a single unit.[2][8]
  5. (ceramics) A saggar.[3][2]
  6. (rare) A small box; a casket.[3][7][2]

Word family

  • cassingle
  • microcassette
  • minicassette
  • audiocassette
  • videocassette
  • cassette deck
  • cassette player

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  5. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  6. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  7. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  8. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  9. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  10. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Cassette.” Etymologically, 31 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/en/cassette. Accessed 31 Oct. 2026.

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