musette

The story

1. French · borrowed frommusette
2. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*mug-
3. Latin · derived frommūgiō“to bellow, low, moo”
4. Late Latin · derived frommūsus“muzzle”
5. Old French · derived frommusette“type of bagpipe”
6. Middle French · derived frommusette
7. Middle English · inherited frommusette“type of bagpipe”
8. English todaymusette

From both of the following: * Late Middle English musette (“type of bagpipe”), from Middle French musette, Old French musette (“type of bagpipe”) (modern French musette), from muse (“bagpipe”) + -ette (diminutive suffix). Muse is derived from muser (“to play the bagpipe; (figuratively) to flatter”), perhaps from musel (“muzzle (protruding part of an animal’s head)”) (alluding to a bagpipe player puffing out the cheeks), from Late Latin mūsus (“muzzle”); further etymology uncertain, perhaps expressive of protruding lips and/or influenced by Latin mūgiō (“to bellow, low, moo”), from Proto-Indo-European *mug-, *mūg- (onomatopoeia of the lowing of cattle). * Borrowed from French musette in the 18th century. Sense 2 (“small bag or knapsack with a shoulder strap”) is due to the resemblance of the original knapsack to the bag of bagpipes.

Words from the same roots

First known use, by meaning

• from 14th c. Any of various small bagpipes having a soft sound, especially with a bellows, which were popular in France in the 17th and early 18th century.
• from 14th c. A pastoral air or tune that has a drone imitating such an instrument; also, a dance performed to this music.
• from 19th c. An organ stop using reed pipes with cone-shaped resonators, found in organs in France in the 17th and 18th centuries.
• from 19th c. A small oboe without a cap for its reed, which evolved from the chanter or pipe of bagpipes; a piccolo oboe.
• from 20th c. In full musette bag: a small bag or knapsack with a shoulder strap, formerly used by soldiers, and now (cycling) chiefly by cyclists to hold food and beverages or other items.