Etymologically
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rocket

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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.
  • 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