Etymology
1. 1420, "to prance, strut, swagger," from M.Fr.
jeter "to throw, thrust," from L.L.
jectare, abstracted from
dejectare, projectare, etc., in place of L.
jactare "toss about," freq. of
jacere "to throw, cast," from PIE base
*ye- "to do" (cf. Gk.
iemi, ienai "to send, throw;" Hitt.
ijami "I make"). Meaning "to sprout or spurt forth" is from 1692. The noun sense of "stream of water" is from 1696; that of "spout or nozzle for emitting water, gas, fuel, etc." is from 1825. Hence
jet propulsion (1867) and the noun meaning "airplane driven by jet propulsion" (1944, from
jet engine, 1943). The first one to be in service was the Ger. Messerschmitt Me 262.
Jet stream is from 1947.
Jet set first attested 1951, slightly before jet commuter plane flights began.
2. Etymology tree
3. Proto-Indo-European *(H)yeh₁-
4. Proto-Indo-European *-kt
5. Proto-Indo-European *(H)yéh₁kt ~ *(H)ih₁kéntder.
6. Latin iaciō
7. Proto-Indo-European *-tus
8. Proto-Italic *-tus
9. Latin -tus
10. Latin iactus
11. Vulgar Latin *iectus
12. Old French get
13. French jetbor.
14. English jet
15. Borrowed from French jet (“spurt”, literally “a throw”), from Old French get, giet, from Vulgar Latin *iectus, *jectus, from Latin iactus (“a throwing, a throw”), from iacere (“to throw”). See abject, ejaculate, gist, jess, jut. Cognate with Spanish echar. See: Spanish '
echar'.
Verbs referencing "jet"
Spanish
echar, Spanish
jactar.