rocket

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /ˈrɒk.ɪt/, US /ˈrɑː.kɪt/^[1]

rocket¹ salad plant

Etymology

The plant is borrowed from Middle French roquette,^[2][3][4] from Italian rochetta, a variant of ruchetta, diminutive of ruca (“a kind of cabbage”),^[2][3][5] from Latin ērūca (“colewort; caterpillar”), a word of uncertain origin.^[2][4][3] Hoad explains the Latin as a plant with downy stems,^[3] and Etymonline relates it to ēricius (“hedgehog”), from PIE Proto-Indo-European *ghers- (“to bristle”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The garden plant of the mustard family: before 1500 as rokette in Barnhart,^[2] about 1500 in Etymonline and MWU,^[4][5] 1530 in the OED.^[6]

Semantic evolution

Garden rocket and Roman rocket are from 1548,^[6] and the name spread to other plants, such as the dame's violet, of the genus Hesperis (1629).^[6] It is eaten as a salad, especially round the Mediterranean;^[7] Word Origins stresses that the salad leaf is a totally different word from the firework.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 1500 – the plant, rokette.^[4][2]
• 1548 – garden rocket.^[6]
• 1629 – plants of the genus Hesperis.^[6]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A Mediterranean plant of the mustard family with sharp-tasting leaves eaten in salads; arugula.
2. Any of several related plants, such as dame's rocket.

rocket² projectile

Etymology

The projectile is borrowed from Italian rocchetto (“a rocket; a bobbin”),^[2][4] perhaps through French roquette,^[3][7] a diminutive of rocca (“distaff”), so called from its cylindrical shape.^[2][3][4][8] The Italian word is probably of Germanic origin:^[2][5][4] compare Old High German rocko (“distaff”) (German Rocken), Middle Dutch rokke and Old Norse rokkr,^[2][4] from Proto-Germanic *rukkon-.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

A firework, a tube of pasteboard filled with combustible matter: 1611, in Florio's New World of Words;^[2][6] the 1610s in Etymonline,^[4] and MWU's first known use is 1566.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The proverb to rise like a rocket and fall like a stick is from 1792.^[6] A device propelled by a rocket engine, as for spaceflight, is by 1919 in the work of Goddard,^[4] and rocket ship in the space-travel sense from 1927.^[4] Rocket science as a by-word for something difficult is by 1985, and rocket scientist from 1952.^[4] A severe reprimand, as in to get a rocket, is British military slang of the Second World War.^[8][9] The verb meant first to attack with rockets (1799), then to send up by rocket (1837) and to fly straight up like a rocket (1860), as a flushed game bird does;^[4][7] prices rocketing is a later figurative use.^[10][7]

Timeline

• 1611 – a firework rocket, in Florio.^[2][6]
• 1792 – to rise like a rocket and fall like a stick.^[6]
• 1799 – to attack with rockets.^[4]
• 1860 – to fly straight up.^[4]
• 1919 – a rocket-propelled vehicle.^[4]
• 1952 – rocket scientist.^[4]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A firework or signal flare propelled by burning its contents.
2. An engine that produces thrust by ejecting hot gases, or a vehicle, missile or spacecraft driven by one.
3. (Brit., informal) A severe reprimand.

Verb

1. To move or rise very fast, like a rocket.
2. Of a game bird, to fly straight up when flushed.
3. To attack with rockets.

Related words

• rochet
• arugula
• distaff

Usage notes

A third rocket, now rare, was a variant of rochet, a bishop's vestment or a cloak, from Old French roket.^[7][6][5]

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e f Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
10. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin