skyrocket

Etymology

It is formed from English sky + rocket,^[2][3][4][5] with rocket in its sense of a firework, which is from Italian rocchetto (“a rocket, literally a bobbin”), a diminutive of rocca (“distaff”), so called from its cylindrical shape.^[3] The verb was formed from the noun by conversion; the OED compares the earlier noun skyrocketing, recorded from 1821, and the adjective of the same spelling, from 1833.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A rocket made to rise high into the air before it explodes, a firework: 1673, in A. Dager's appendix on artificial fireworks.^[2] Merriam-Webster dates the noun to 1688,^[6] and Etymonline and Dictionary.com to the 1680s.^[3][4]

Semantic evolution

Johnson (1755) described the skyrocket as a kind of firework that flies high and burns as it flies, quoting Addison's comparison of a comet to a skyrocket launched by an almighty hand.^[5] The noun skyrocketing, the action of shooting up, is recorded from 1821 in De Quincey.^[2] The verb first appears in 1851 in cricket, of hitting a ball high into the air;^[2] from 1859 it meant to jump up or rush off, or to move about in an excited, reckless way.^[2] Its figurative use for a sudden rise, originally American, is recorded first of causing prices or stocks to rise (1886) and then of rising abruptly (1895);^[2][3] Etymonline notes that it often suggests the rocket's later bursting and vanishing.^[3] In the United States the noun also named a cheer that imitated a rocket going up and exploding (from 1860),^[2] and in rhyming slang a sky rocket is a pocket.^[2][3] A rare use for "to destroy utterly" is recorded in 1928.^[2]

Timeline

• 1673 – a firework rocket that rises high before exploding.^[2] Merriam-Webster dates it to 1688.^[6]
• 1851 – verb, in cricket, to hit a ball high into the air.^[2]
• 1859 – to jump up or rush off; to move about excitedly or recklessly.^[2]
• 1860 – US, a cheer imitating the sound of a rising and bursting rocket.^[2]
• 1879 – rhyming slang, a pocket.^[3] The OED's first record is from 1887.^[2]
• 1886 – to make something, such as the price of stocks, rise abruptly; to advance a person rapidly.^[2]
• 1895 – to rise or increase abruptly and rapidly.^[2][3] Merriam-Webster dates this sense to 1851.^[6]
• 1928 – to destroy utterly (rare, now obsolete).^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A firework rocket that shoots high into the air and bursts into sparks.^[7][2][8]
2. (rhyming slang) A pocket.^[2][3]
3. (US) A cheer imitating the sound of a rocket going up and bursting.^[2]
4. A North American herb, also called skyrocket gilia, with flowers whose narrow lobes curve backwards, often grown as an ornamental.^[6][9]

Verb

1. To rise or increase suddenly and steeply: Rents skyrocketed after the new railway line opened.^[7][6][8][2]
2. To make something rise or increase suddenly and steeply; also, to advance a person rapidly.^[7][6][2]
3. To move or act in an excited, impulsive or reckless way.^[6][2]
4. To hit, throw or kick a ball high into the air.^[2]

Related words

• sky
• rocket

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
5. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
6. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
8. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
9. ^ Gove, Philip Babcock, ed. (1961), Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam