launcher

Etymology

It is formed from English launch + -er.^[2][3][4][5] Launch comes from Old French lancher, the Old Northern French form of lancier (“to fling, hurl”),^[2][3] from Late Latin lanceō (“to wield a lance”), from Latin lancea (“light spear”), the source of lance.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A person who launches something: 1824, in Hawker's Instructions to Young Sportsmen.^[2][3] Dictionary.com dates the word to 1815–25.^[5]

Semantic evolution

A launcher was at first a person who launches, in any sense of the verb.^[2][3] The sense "device for launching" is recorded from 1911, at first of aeroplanes;^[2][3][6] Merriam-Webster takes 1911 as the word's first date.^[6] It was applied to rockets by 1944,^[3] and later to a structure holding a rocket or missile while it is fired and to a rocket that carries a satellite or spacecraft into orbit.^[2][4][7]

Timeline

• 1824 – a person who launches something.^[2][3]
• 1911 – a device for launching, at first aeroplanes.^[2][3][6]
• 1944 – used of rockets.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A structure or device that holds and fires a rocket or missile: a mobile missile launcher.^[7][6][8]
2. An attachment to a rifle, or a separate weapon, for firing grenades.^[6][8][7]
3. A rocket that carries a satellite or spacecraft into orbit; a launch vehicle.^[7][6]
4. A catapult for launching aircraft.^[8][6]
5. A person who launches something.^[2][6]

Word family

• grenade launcher
• rocket launcher

Related words

• launch
• lance
• lancer

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b c d Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt