musette

American  

[myoo-zet] / mjuˈzɛt /

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.

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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

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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

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

musette

They hurled cotton musette bags, which hold riders’ snacks, into previously pristine rivers.

From New York Times ● Apr. 14, 2021

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

Rustic percussion accents added wildness to some dances; the nasal drone of a musette, a French type of bagpipes, colored the pastoral scene.

From New York Times ● Apr. 15, 2016

French phrase books clutched in their hands, Gerland Gildner and Eugene van Sant clattered in with a musette bag full of gifts.

From Time Magazine Archive

The dancing-club was a bal musette in the Rue de la Montagne Sainte Geneviève.

From "The Sun Also Rises" by Ernest Hemingway

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