Etymologically
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ferret

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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
  • 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