musette

English

WOTD – 19 July 2022

Etymology

A musette de cour (sense 1.1).

A musette (sense 1.2) or piccolo oboe is a type of small oboe which evolved from the chanter or pipe of bagpipes.

Norwegian professional cyclist Thor Hushovd with a musette (sense 2) around his neck during the 2011 Tour de France.

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.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /mjuːˈzɛt/, /mjʊ-/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /mjuˈzɛt/
• Rhymes: -ɛt
• Hyphenation: mus‧ette

Noun

musette (plural musettes)

1. (music)
   1. (historical) 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.]

      Synonyms: pastoral oboe, shepherd's pipe

      1. (by extension) A pastoral air or tune that has a drone imitating such an instrument; also, a dance performed to this music. [from 18th c.]
   2. (historical) An organ stop using reed pipes with cone-shaped resonators, found in organs in France in the 17th and 18th centuries. [from 19th c.]
   3. A small oboe without a cap for its reed, which evolved from the chanter or pipe of bagpipes; a piccolo oboe. [from 19th c.]

      Synonyms: oboe musette, piccoloboe

2. (chiefly US, originally military) 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. [from 20th c.]

   (cycling): Hyponym: bonk bag

   • 1923, [Ernest Hemingway], “Out of Season”, in Three Stories […] & Ten Poems […], [Paris]: [Contact Publishing Company]; printed at Dijon by Maurice Darantière, →OCLC, page 13:

     The young gentleman had a musette over his shoulder.

   • 1929 May–October, Ernest Hemingway, chapter 23, in A Farewell to Arms, 1st British edition, London: Jonathan Cape […], published 1929, →OCLC, book II, page 156:

     I gave them money for platform tickets and had them take my baggage. There was a big rucksack and two musettes.

   • 1961 November 10, Joseph Heller, “Yo-Yo’s Roomies”, in Catch-22 […], New York, N.Y.: Simon and Schuster, →OCLC, page 362:

     Yossarian watched Chief White Halfoat pour whiskey carefully into three empty shampoo bottles and store them away in the musette bag he was packing.

Related terms

• bal musette
• musar

Translations

any of various small bagpipes having a soft sound, especially with a bellows

• Catalan: please add this translation if you can
• Dutch: musette (nl) m or f
• Finnish: musetti
• French: musette (fr) f
• German: Musette f
• Polish: musette n
• Spanish: please add this translation if you can

pastoral air or tune that has a drone imitating this instrument; dance performed to this music

• Catalan: please add this translation if you can
• Dutch: musette (nl) m or f
• Finnish: musetti
• French: musette (fr) f
• German: Musette f
• Polish: musette n
• Spanish: please add this translation if you can

small oboe without a cap for its reed

• Catalan: please add this translation if you can
• Finnish: musetti
• French: musette (fr) f
• German: Musette ?
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: musette m

• Polish: obojczyk musette m
• Spanish: please add this translation if you can

organ stop using reed pipes with cone-shaped resonators

• Catalan: please add this translation if you can
• Finnish: musetti
• French: musette (fr) f
• Polish: organy musette m pl
• Spanish: please add this translation if you can

small bag or knapsack with a shoulder strap

• Catalan: please add this translation if you can
• Dutch: musette (nl) m or f
• Finnish: olkapussi, olkapussukka
• French: musette (fr) f
• Hungarian: tarsoly (hu)
• Polish: torebka z paskiem f
• Spanish: please add this translation if you can

Further reading

• musette (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• piccolo oboe on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• glossary of cycling on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

French

Etymology

Inherited from Middle French musette, Old French musette (“type of bagpipe”), from muse (“bagpipe”) +‎ -ette (diminutive suffix). Muse is a deverbal of 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).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /my.zɛt/

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

musette f (plural musettes)

1. musette
2. bagpipe
3. Ellipsis of bal musette.
4. haversack (small bag for provisions)

   Synonym: havresac

5. nosebag (round sack or bag to feed for a horse)

Derived terms

• bal musette
• valse musette

Further reading

• “musette”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Anagrams

• muettes

Italian

Noun

musette f

1. plural of musetta