dart

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English dart,^[2][3] borrowed from Old French dart,^{[4][5][6][7][8]} the accusative of darz or dars,^[4][9][10] later spelled dard.^[4][11][12] The French word is of Germanic origin,^[13][14][15] from Frankish *daroþ according to Klein,^[11] ultimately from Proto-Germanic *darōþuz (“dart, spear”),^[5][6][1] the source also of Old English daroþ (“javelin, dart”), Old High German tart (“dart, javelin”) and Old Norse darraðr.^{[5][13][7][11]} dardo and dardo are said to come from the same Germanic word by way of Old Occitan dart.^[5][11] The Anglo-Norman word is recorded from the first half of the 12th century, already in the image of the dart of love.^[16] Barnhart connects the Germanic noun with a Sanskrit word for an edge or blade, from an Indo-European root meaning sharp,^[6] and Merriam-Webster more cautiously compares Greek and Sanskrit words for sharp and blade;^[14] Wiktionary instead derives it from Proto-Indo-European *dʰerh₃- (“to leap, spring”).^[1] The verb, darten, was formed from the noun,^{[5][4][14][9]} and the OED compares darder, recorded in the 15th century.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

A pointed missile weapon thrown by hand, such as a light spear or javelin: about 1330, in the Auchinleck manuscript texts of Sir Tristrem and Guy of Warwick,^[4][2] which Barnhart dates to probably before 1300.^[6] Etymonline describes the first sense as a metal-pointed missile thrown by hand.^[5]

Semantic evolution

From Middle English on, the word was also used of Cupid's arrows of love,^[5] a figure already found in Anglo-Norman,^[16] and the figurative use, anything that wounds like a dart, is recorded from 1382 in the Wycliffite Bible.^[4] Chaucer used the noun eleven times and Gower ten.^[3] The verb first meant to pierce with a dart (Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde, about 1374), a sense obsolete after the 18th century;^[4][6][5] it came to mean to throw a dart (1530, Palsgrave) and to throw or shoot something (1580),^[4][5] and then, from the early 17th century, to move swiftly like a dart.^[4][5][7] The noun followed the verb: a sudden quick movement is recorded from 1721.^[4][9] Johnson (1755) defined the noun only as a missile weapon thrown by the hand, a small lance.^[17] Later senses compared other things to the missile: the sting of an insect or the dart of a snail (1665, in Hooke's Micrographia), a tapering seam in dressmaking (1884), and the small missile of the game of darts (1901); Etymonline dates dart-board to 1893.^[4][5] In Australian slang a dart was one's plan or scheme from 1882, and one's fancy or favourite from 1898;^[4][18] in Ireland a person thought to be struck by the fairies was said to have been struck with a dart.^[19]

Timeline

• c. 1330 – a pointed missile weapon thrown by hand.^[4][2]
• c. 1374 – verb, to pierce with a dart (obsolete after 1753).^[4][6]
• 1382 – figurative, something that wounds like a dart.^[4]
• 1530 – verb, to throw a dart.^[4]
• 1580 – verb, to throw or shoot a missile.^[4]
• 1593 – verb, to send out suddenly, to cast a glance.^[4]
• before 1640 – verb, to move suddenly and swiftly like a dart.^[4][5]
• 1665 – a dart-like organ, such as a sting.^[4]
• 1721 – a sudden rapid movement.^[4]
• 1882 – Australian slang, a plan or scheme.^[4]
• 1884 – a tapered seam in dressmaking.^[4]
• 1893 – dart-board.^[5]
• 1901 – the small missile of the game of darts.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A small pointed missile, weighted at the tip and usually feathered at the back, thrown by hand at a target in the game of darts or shot from a blowgun.^[20][14][4]
2. A sudden quick movement: The cat made a dart for the open door.^[20][4]
3. A tapered tuck sewn into a garment to shape it.^[20][4]
4. (zoology) A slender pointed structure, such as the sting of an insect or the dart a snail uses in mating.^[20][4]
5. (Australian, informal) One's plan or scheme; also, one's fancy or favourite.^[4][18]
6. (archaic) A light spear or javelin thrown by hand; also an arrow.^[14][4][17]

Verb

1. To move suddenly and quickly: A fox darted across the lane.^[20][14][4]
2. To throw or send out suddenly, as a glance: She darted an angry look at her brother.^[14][4]
3. To shoot an animal with a dart carrying a tranquilizer.^[14]
4. (obsolete) To pierce with a dart.^[14][4]

Word family

• dartingly
• dartingness
• dartboard
• dartle
• darter
• egg and dart
• poison dart frog

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c 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 Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
4. ^ 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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
7. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b c d Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
12. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
13. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
14. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
15. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
16. ^ a b Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
17. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
18. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
19. ^ 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)
20. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins