musette

[myoo-zet]

noun

Also called musette bag. a small leather or canvas bag with a shoulder strap, used for carrying personal belongings, food, etc., while hiking, marching, or the like.
a French bagpipe of the 17th and early 18th centuries, with several chambers and drones, and with the wind supplied by a bellows rather than a blowpipe.
a woodwind instrument similar to but smaller than a shawm.

a short musical piece with a drone bass, often forming the middle section of a gavotte.

Origin of musette

1350–1400; Middle English < Middle French, equivalent to muse bagpipe (derivative of muser to play the bagpipe < Latin mussāre to hum; see muse) + -ette- -ette

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for musette

Historical Examples of musette

Pellisson was shut up with a Basque who used to play to him on the musette.
Legends of the Bastille
Frantz Funck-Brentano
Is her milk as white and as good as the milk of your snowy pet, Musette?
The Mysteries of Paris, Volume 2 of 6
Eugne Sue
Tell me, my child, what colour is your favourite heifer Musette?
The Mysteries of Paris, Volume 2 of 6
Eugne Sue
When accompanied by a musette, the gavotte is always repeated.
Critical & Historical Essays
Edward MacDowell
And on his side, Marcel is hard and fast in love with Musette.
Bohemians of the Latin Quarter
Henry Murger

British Dictionary definitions for musette

musette

noun

a type of bagpipe with a bellows popular in France during the 17th and 18th centuries
a dance, with a drone bass originally played by a musette

Word Origin for musette

C14: from Old French, diminutive of muse bagpipe

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for musette

"small bagpipe," late 14c., from Old French musette "bagpipe" (13c.), from muser "to play the bagpipe, make music," from mus "mouth, muzzle," from Medieval Latin musum (see muzzle (n.)). As "a composition for a musette" from 1811, from French.