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jetty

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Etymology and origin of the English word jetty

Pronunciation

  • UK: /ˈd͡ʒɛti/[1]
  • US: /ˈd͡ʒɛti/[1]

jetty1 pier, breakwater

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1422 a London English document
Borrowed from
Anglo-Norman geté via Middle English
Ultimate origin
Latin iaciō

Etymology

The word for the pier is inherited from Middle English getee, also getti and jettie,[2][3][4] borrowed from Anglo-Norman geté, also getee, and Middle French getee, a projecting part of a building (recorded from 1342) and a pier, breakwater or mole (from 1412).[5] The French noun is the feminine past participle of geter (“to throw”), used as a noun;[5][2][6] Etymonline, Barnhart and the American Heritage Dictionary give the source as Old French jetee, something thrown out.[7][4][3][8] The French verb goes back through Vulgar Latin *iectō to Latin iactō (“to toss about”), the frequentative of iaciō (“to throw”),[3][5] from Proto-Indo-European *ye- (“to throw, impel”).[7][3] The notion is of a structure "thrown out" beyond what surrounds it.[7][9] In Anglo-Norman the noun is recorded from 1330, for an overhang and for a jetty.[10] From the 18th century the English word was sometimes spelt with a final “-ée”, as if French.[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

A projecting part of a building, especially an overhanging upper storey: 1422, in a London English document.[5] Barnhart has the form juteye, an overhang, from 1418, and getti for a breakwater before 1420.[4]

Semantic evolution

Ayto notes that the word was used from the first both for a structure jutting out into water and for the projecting upper storey of a house, and that the second now survives only as a technical term of architectural history.[9] The sense of a breakwater or pier built to protect a harbour or coast is in Lydgate's Troy Book (c. 1425).[5] From 1550 to 1867 a jetty could also be a bulwark or bastion; a natural promontory is recorded from 1683.[5] The sense of a small landing stage for boats is recorded from 1830,[5] and in the late 20th century an air jetty was the covered walkway between an aircraft and the terminal (1967).[5] The verb, from the noun, meant to build part of a building so that it juts out (1438), then of a building, to project (1598), and later to provide a shore with a jetty (1805).[5][2] In Midland dialects (Nottinghamshire, Lincolnshire, Leicestershire, Northamptonshire, Warwickshire) a jetty or jitty was a raised footpath, or a path between two walls or hedges,[11][2] and in Gloucestershire the verb meant to jut out.[11]

Timeline

  • 1418 – a projecting part of a building, in the form juteye.[4] The OED's first record of this sense is from 1422.[5]
  • c. 1425 – a breakwater or pier protecting a harbour or coast, in Lydgate's Troy Book.[5] Barnhart has getti in this sense before 1420.[4]
  • 1438 – verb, to build part of a building so that it projects.[5]
  • 1550 – a bulwark or bastion (obsolete by 1867).[5]
  • 1598 – verb, of a building, to project or jut.[5][2]
  • 1683 – a natural promontory.[5]
  • 1805 – verb, to provide a shore or riverbank with a jetty.[5]
  • 1830 – a landing stage or small pier for boats.[5]
  • 1967 – a covered walkway between an aircraft and the terminal (air jetty).[5]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A structure such as a pier or mole built out into the sea, a lake or a river to influence the current or to protect a harbour.[2][12][5]
  2. A landing pier or small wharf at which boats can moor.[12][2][5]
  3. A movable covered walkway between an aircraft and an airport building.[5]
  4. A part of a building that projects beyond the rest, especially an overhanging upper storey.[2][5]
  5. (dialect) In parts of England, a narrow passage or raised footpath.[2][11]
  6. (obsolete, 1550–1867) A protecting outwork; a bulwark or bastion.[5][2]

Verb

  1. Of part of a building, to project or jut.[2][5]
  2. To reach out into a body of water like a jetty: The breakwater jetties far into the bay.[2]
  3. To build part of a building so that it projects.[5][6]

jetty2 jet-black

Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
1477 Caxton's Book of Curtesye
Ultimate origin
Latin gagātēs
Etymology tree of jetty2
inherited borrowed derived
English jet
English jetty

Etymology

The word for jet-black is formed from English jet (“the black mineral”) + -y.[5][6][2] The name of the stone came into Middle English as get or jet, from Anglo-Norman geet,[3][5] a variant of Old French jaiet (modern jais),[7][5] from Latin gagātēs,[3][5][7] from a Greek name for the stone, after Gagai, a town in Lycia, according to the American Heritage Dictionary;[3] Etymonline names the place Gages, a town and river in Lycia.[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of the colour of jet, jet-black: 1477, in Caxton's edition of the Book of Curtesye.[5] Etymonline dates the colour sense of jet and its adjective to the mid-15th century.[7]

Semantic evolution

Johnson (1755) gave two senses, "made of jet" and "black as jet", quoting Browne's "a jetty black" and Prior's "jetty curls".[13] The sense "of the nature of jet" is recorded only rarely, in a technical dictionary of 1875.[5][6]

Timeline

  • 1477 – of the colour of jet, jet-black.[5][6]
  • 1875 – of the nature or composition of jet (rare, now obsolete).[5][6]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Of the deep glossy black of jet; jet-black: a horse with a jetty mane.[2][5][13]
  2. (obsolete) Made of jet.[13][5][6]

Word family

  • jettiness

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  3. ^ a b c d e f g The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  4. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  6. ^ a b c d e f g Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  8. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  9. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
  10. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
  11. ^ a b c 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)
  12. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  13. ^ a b c Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Jetty.” Etymologically, 8 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/en/jetty. Accessed 9 Nov. 2026.

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