ricochet
Pronunciation
- IPA: /ˈɹɪk.ə.ʃeɪ/ (UK)[1]
Etymology
It is borrowed from French ricochet (“the skipping of a shot or a flat stone on water”),[2][3][4][5][6] of uncertain origin.[3][4][6] In its earliest French use (15th century) the word appears only in phrases such as fable du ricochet, a tale in which the teller skilfully evades questions, and chanson du ricochet, a repetitive song.[3][4]
Earliest recorded meaning
Etymonline and the OED date the verb, in the military sense of subjecting a place to ricochet fire, to 1758;[4][7] the noun, a way of firing projectiles so that they skip along a surface, is from 1769.[7][3][4][5]
Semantic evolution
The intransitive verb, of a projectile glancing or skipping off a surface, is recorded from 1828,[7][3][4][5] and it is now the usual sense.[2][5][6]
Timeline
- 1758 – verb, to subject to ricochet fire.[4][7]
- 1769 – noun, ricochet firing.[7][3][4][5]
- 1828 – verb, to rebound or skip.[7][3][4][5]
Modern meaning
Verb
- To rebound one or more times from a surface, as a bullet or a stone skipping on water.
Noun
- The act or an instance of ricocheting; a glancing rebound.
- An object that ricochets.
Related words
- rebound
- carom
- scud
Usage notes
Random House lists rebound, deflect and glance as synonyms of the verb.[6]
References
- ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
- ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
- ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
- ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
- ^ a b c d Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House
- ^ a b c d e f Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press