rocchetta

Italian

Etymology

From Old Italian rocchetto (“rocket”, literally “a bobbin”), diminutive of rocca (“a distaff”), from Lombardic rocko (“spinning wheel”), from Proto-West Germanic *rokkō, from Proto-Germanic *rukkô (“a distaff, a staff with flax fibres tied loosely to it, used in spinning thread”). Cognate with Old High German rocco, rocko, roccho, rocho ("a distaff"; > German Rocken (“a distaff”)), Swedish rock (“a distaff”), Icelandic rokkur (“a distaff”), Middle English rocke (“a distaff”).

For the meaning development, compare fuselage, ultimately from Latin fūsus (“spindle, spinning wheel”)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /rokˈket.ta/
• Rhymes: -etta
• Hyphenation: roc‧chét‧ta

Noun

rocchetta f (plural rocchette)

1. (military) incendiary rocket