musette

American  

[myoo-zet] / myuˈzɛt /

noun

1. 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.

2. 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.

3. a woodwind instrument similar to but smaller than a shawm.

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

---

musette British  

/ mjuːˈzɛt, myzɛt /

noun

1. a type of bagpipe with a bellows popular in France during the 17th and 18th centuries

2. a dance, with a drone bass originally played by a musette

---

Etymology

Origin of musette

First recorded in 1350–1400; musette def. 1 was first recorded in 1920–25; Middle English, from Middle French, equivalent to muse “bagpipe” (derivative of muser “to play the bagpipe,” from Latin mussāre “to hum”) + -ette; see origin at muse, -ette

Example Sentences

In addition to his suitcase, musette bag, and walnut cane, MacArthur would take his wife Jean and son Arthur, the two most precious people in his life.

From Salon • Nov. 11, 2018

In keeping with its name, the festival’s emphasis is on folk and international genres like zydeco, vallenato, tango, klezmer, musette, qawwali, forró, bachata and the music of the Balkans.

From New York Times • Jun. 26, 2013

The real star among the players, though, was Wayne Hankin, who played flutes — two at a time, in an anonymous Italian saltarello — reeds and the bagpipelike musette.

From New York Times • Dec. 26, 2011

Courtiers called it the musette and equipped it with hand bellows so that their pretty faces would not be empurpled by hard blowing.

From Time Magazine Archive

Yossarian put aside the musette bag from which he had begun removing his toilet articles and braced himself suspiciously.

From "Catch-22" by Joseph Heller