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Etymology and origin of the English word cornet

Pronunciation

  • UK: /ˈkɔːnɪt/[1]
  • US: /kɔɹˈnɛt/[1]

cornet1 wind instrument, cone

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
c. 1440 Morte Arthure, composed perhaps before 1400
Borrowed from
Anglo-Norman cornet via Middle English
Ultimate origin
Proto-Indo-European *ker-

Etymology

The word for the wind instrument is inherited from Middle English cornet, also cornette,[2][3][4] borrowed from Anglo-Norman cornet and Middle French cornet,[5][4] the Old French word being a diminutive of corn (“horn”),[6][3][4][7] from Latin cornū (“horn of an animal; bugle horn”),[6][3][8] from Proto-Indo-European *ker- (“horn; head”),[6][9] the root of horn.[6][3] In French the word is recorded in the first half of the 13th century for a horn-shaped wind instrument, a receptacle and an inkhorn, and in 1432 for a horn of paper;[5] the Anglo-Norman Dictionary has it from 1148.[10] Compare Italian cornetto.[5][11] The French feminine diminutive gave cornet2.[12][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

A horn-shaped wind instrument: about 1440, in the alliterative Morte Arthure, "With trompes þay trine..With cornettes and clarions",[2][5] a poem probably composed before 1400.[2][3] Etymonline says about 1400,[6] Dictionary.com 1325–75,[7] and Hoad, Collins and Merriam-Webster Unabridged the 14th century.[13][14][4]

Semantic evolution

Barnhart notes that the early instrument was made of an animal's horn or resembled one,[3] and the MED glosses it as a wooden wind instrument with six finger holes;[2][6] the OED now spells that instrument cornett.[5] Johnson (1755) called it a musical instrument blown with the mouth, quoting "psalteries...timbrels...cornets" from 2 Samuel.[15] The name passed to an organ stop in 1660,[5] and in the 1830s to the valved brass instrument, for which English first used French cornet à pistons (“cornet with pistons”).[6][5] The Century Dictionary, quoted by Etymonline, found its tone "penetrating and unsympathetic".[6] The horn shape gave a second line of senses,[13] first a triangular piece of bread (1466–7) and a paper cone twisted at the tip (1530),[5] then a farrier's pointed instrument for bloodletting (1566–1729).[5][12] Cones of paper were used in chemistry from 1668 and in confectionery from 1844,[5] which led to a wafer cone for fruit or sweets in 1897 and later for ice cream, now chiefly a British use.[5][14][12] The word is also used in gold assaying, for the flat coil into which the sample is rolled.[12][4]

Timeline

  • c. 1440 – a wind instrument made from or resembling a horn.[5][2]
  • 1466–7 – a triangular piece of bread (obsolete).[5]
  • 1530 – a piece of paper rolled into a cone.[5]
  • 1566 – a farrier's instrument for bloodletting (obsolete by 1729).[5]
  • 1660 – an organ stop.[5]
  • 1668 – a paper cone used in chemistry (obsolete by 1902).[5]
  • 1836 – a valved brass instrument, also cornet-à-pistons.[5][6]
  • 1844 – a paper funnel for piping icing.[5]
  • 1869 – verb, to play on the cornet (obsolete by 1927).[5]
  • 1897 – a cone-shaped wafer for serving confections, later ice cream.[5]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A valved brass instrument of the trumpet family, shorter than the trumpet and with a partly conical tube: She plays first cornet in the colliery band.[4][14][5]
  2. A person who plays this instrument.[14][5][12]
  3. An early wind instrument of wood or horn with finger holes, now usually spelled cornett.[4][14][5]
  4. Any of various organ stops, especially a powerful mixture stop.[4][5][12]
  5. A piece of paper rolled into a cone and twisted at the end, used to hold sweets or groceries.[4][14][5]
  6. (chiefly British) A cone-shaped wafer for ice cream.[14][5][12]
  7. A paper funnel for piping icing or batter.[5]
  8. A flattened bead or coil of metal in gold assaying.[4][12]
  9. (obsolete, 1566–1729) A farrier's pointed instrument for bloodletting.[5][12]

Word family

  • cornetist
  • cornetfish

cornet2 headdress, standard, cavalry officer

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1542 accounts of the Treasurer of Scotland
Borrowed from
Anglo-Norman cornette
Ultimate origin
Latin cornū

Etymology

The word for the headdress and the cavalry standard is borrowed from Anglo-Norman cornette and Middle French cornette,[5][4][12][11] from corne (“horn”) with the diminutive suffix -ette,[5][4][12][11] originally a collective noun,[12][16] based on Latin cornua (“horns”), a neuter plural taken as a feminine singular.[11][12][16] In French it is recorded from the second half of the 12th century for the pointed part of a woman's headdress.[5] Some English forms were influenced by coronet.[5] Klein relates it to cornet1.[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

A woman's headdress: 1542–3, in the accounts of the Treasurer of Scotland.[5] Merriam-Webster Unabridged says about 1547,[4] and the Shorter Oxford the mid-16th century.[12]

Semantic evolution

All the military senses had grown up in French first: the word was a pennon on a lance in 1451, a standard-bearer in 1480, a standard before 1514 and a troop of cavalry in 1554.[5] English took them over together, the troop from 1570 and the flag and its bearer from 1579, in Digges's Stratioticos.[5] Weekley compares the way an ensign was named after his flag.[11] Johnson (1755), who treated the word together with the instrument, recorded the officer who bears the standard and called the sense of a company of horse disused.[15] The rank is now historical;[5][4] it was the fifth grade of commissioned officer in a British cavalry troop,[4][12] and Collins describes it as the lowest commissioned cavalry rank.[14] The word lives on in Scotland, where the cornet has been the chief rider and standard-bearer at the riding of the marches in Hawick, Kelso, Peebles and Dumfries, recorded from 1706.[5][12] Meanwhile the dress sense continued in the black scarf worn by doctors of law or medicine (1658–1827),[5][17] and in the large white headdress of the Sisters of Charity, from 1841, usually spelled cornette.[5][12]

Timeline

  • 1542 – a woman's headdress with a veil.[5]
  • 1570 – a troop of cavalry.[5]
  • 1579 – the standard of a cavalry troop, and the officer who carried it.[5]
  • 1658 – a black scarf worn by doctors (obsolete by 1827).[5]
  • 1706 – in Scottish Border towns, the chief rider at the riding of the marches.[5]
  • 1759 – in the French navy, a swallow-tailed flag marking a commodore or admiral.[5]
  • 1841 – the headdress of the Sisters of Charity.[5]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (historical) The lowest commissioned officer of a cavalry troop, who carried the standard.[4][14][5]
  2. (Scotland) The chief rider and standard-bearer at the riding of the marches in a Border town.[5][12]
  3. (historical) A woman's cap or headdress, often of fine material with lappets or a veil.[4][5][12]
  4. The large white headdress formerly worn by the Sisters of Charity, usually spelled cornette.[5][12]
  5. (historical) The flag of a troop of cavalry.[4][5][12]
  6. (historical) A troop of cavalry.[4][5][12][15]
  7. (obsolete, 1658–1827) A black scarf worn by doctors as academic dress.[5][17]

Word family

  • cornetcy
  • field cornet

Usage notes

A verb cornet (1592–1612), apparently to move like a horse performing the cornetti, a leap in classical riding, comes either from cornet1 or directly from Italian cornetto.[5] Johnson also gives cornet of a horse for the lowest part of the pastern, next to the hoof.[15]

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
  3. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  7. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  8. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  9. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  10. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
  11. ^ a b c d e Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  12. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  13. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  14. ^ a b c d e f g h i Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  15. ^ a b c d Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  16. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  17. ^ a b Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Cornet.” Etymologically, 6 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/en/cornet. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

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