ferret

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈfɛɹɪt/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English furet,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Old French furet,^[2][4][5] a diminutive of fuiron “weasel, ferret, thief”,^[4][5] from Late Latin fūriō,^[4][5] or from Vulgar Latin *fūrittus (“little thief”),^[2][3][6] from Latin fūr “thief”,^[2][3][4][5] from Proto-Indo-European *bher- (“to bear, carry”).^[5][2] The animal was named for its slyness.^[5] It is related to furtive.^[3][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

A half-tamed variety of polecat kept for driving rabbits from their burrows (1398).^[7] Barnhart dates the form furet to about 1350, Etymonline to the late 14th century.^[4][5]

Semantic evolution

The verb, “to hunt with ferrets”, dates from the 15th century (c1450).^[7][4][5] Because the ferret flushes animals out of hiding, the verb took on the sense “to search out, bring to light”, usually ferret out (1577–87),^[7][4][5] as well as “to worry, harry” (1599).^[7][2] A separate noun ferret, a narrow tape, is probably from Italian fioretti “floss silk”.^[2][3][6]

Timeline

• 1398 – the half-tamed polecat.^[7]
• c1450 – verb, to hunt with ferrets.^[7][4]
• 1577–87 – verb, to search out, discover.^[7][4]
• 1599 – verb, to hunt after, worry.^[7]
• 1626 – figurative use of the noun.^[7]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A domesticated, usually albino or brownish mammal descended from the European polecat, used to hunt rats and rabbits.
2. The black-footed ferret of North America.
3. An active and persistent searcher.

Verb

1. To search out and bring to light; usually with out.
2. To hunt rabbits or rats with ferrets; to drive out of hiding.
3. To search intensively; to rummage.
4. To harry or worry persistently.

Word family

• ferreter
• ferrety

Related words

• furtive
• furtively

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
3. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press