Etymology

bassinet

B3A1S1S1I1N1E1T1

Today it means: A newborn baby's bed, traditionally woven with reeds or straw; a (wicker) cradle. Full definition →

French bassinet
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

bassinet · noun1

  1. French · derived frombassinet“small basin”
  2. English todaybassinet

From French bassinet (“small basin”), equivalent to basin + -et. Ernest Klein, however, suggests derivation from French bercelonnette (“cradle”), with influence from bassin(et), to account for the English sense's semantic specialization.

bassinet · noun2

See bascinet.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.