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Origin and history of pellet

pellet(n.)

mid-14c., pelot, "any little ball," as of a medicine or food, but especially a little metallic ball used as a missile, from Old French pelote "small ball" (11c.) and directly from Medieval Latin pelotis, from Vulgar Latin *pilotta, diminutive of Latin pila "ball, playing ball, the game of ball," perhaps originally "ball of hair," from pilus "hair" (see pile (n.3)).

pellet(v.)

"to form into little balls," 1590s, from pellet (n.).

also from 1590s

Entries linking to pellet

pile(n.3)

mid-14c., "downy plumage;" late 15c, "fine, soft hair," from Anglo-French pyle or Middle Dutch pijl, both from Latin pilus "a hair" (source of Italian pelo, Old French pel), a word of uncertain origin. Phonological evidence rules out transmission of the English word via Old French cognate peil, poil. Meaning "soft, raised surface of a regular and closely set kind upon cloth" is from 1560s.

pelt(v.)

"to strike repeatedly" (with something), c. 1500, a word of unknown origin; according to one old theory it is perhaps from early 13c. pelten "to strike," a variant of pilten "to thrust, strike," from an unrecorded Old English *pyltan, from Medieval Latin *pultiare, from Latin pultare "to beat, knock, strike," or [Watkins] pellere "to push, drive, strike" (from PIE root *pel- (5) "to thrust, strike, drive"). OED doubts this. Or it might be from Old French peloter "to strike with a ball," from pelote "ball" (see pellet (n.)) [Klein].

From 1680s as "to go on throwing (missiles) with intent to strike." The meaning "proceed rapidly and without intermission" (1831) is from the notion of beating the ground with rapid steps. Related: Pelted; pelting.

platoon(n.)

1630s, "a small body of soldiers acting together but separate from the main body of troops," from French peloton "platoon, group of people," literally "little ball" (15c.), hence, "agglomeration," diminutive of Old French pelote "ball" (see pellet). Football sense of "group of players trained to act as a unit on the field" is by 1941.

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    claymore
    Modern military application to a type of pellet-scattering anti-personnel mine is first attested 1962....
    grape
    mid-13c., "a grape, a berry of the vine," also collective singular, from Old French grape "bunch of grapes, grape" (12c.), probably a back-formation from graper "steal; grasp; catch with a hook; pick (grapes)," from a Frankish or other Germanic word, from Proto-Germanic *krappon
    ball
    "round object, compact spherical body," also "a ball used in a game," c. 1200, probably from an unrecorded Old English *beal, *beall (evidenced by the diminutive bealluc "testicle"), or from cognate Old Norse bollr "ball," from Proto-Germanic *balluz (source also of Dutch bal, Fl
    grapeshot
    also grape-shot, 1747, from grape + shot (n.). So called for its appearance. Originally simply grape (1680s), a collective singular. The whiff of grapeshot was popularized in English from 1837, from Carlyle's history of the French Revolution (in which book it was a chapter title)
    host
    "person who receives guests," especially for pay, late 13c., from Old French oste, hoste "guest, host, hostess, landlord" (12c., Modern French hôte), from Latin hospitem (nominative hospes) "guest, stranger, sojourner, visitor (hence also 'foreigner')," also "host; one bound by t
    missile
    "thing thrown or discharged as a weapon for the purpose of hitting something," 1650s, from missile (adj.), 1610s, "capable of being thrown," chiefly in phrase missile weapon, from French missile and directly from Latin missilis "that may be thrown or hurled" (also, in plural, as
    globe
    late 14c., "a large mass;" mid-15c., "spherical solid body, a sphere," from Old French globe (14c.) and directly from Latin globus "round mass, sphere, ball" (also, of men, "a throng, crowd, body, mass"), which is related to gleba "clod, lump of soil" (see glebe) and perhaps also
    orb
    mid-15c., "sphere, globe, something spherical or circular, orbit of a heavenly body," from Old French orbe "orb, globe" (13c.) and directly from Latin orbem (nominative orbis) "circle, disk, ring, hoop, orbit," probably related to orbita "wheel track, rut," a word of unknown and
    rob
    late 12c., robben, "steal, take away (from someone) unlawfully; plunder or strip (a place) by force or violence," from Old French rober "rob, steal, pillage, ransack, rape," from West Germanic *rauba "booty" (source also of Old High German roubon "to rob," roub "spoil, plunder;"
    projectile
    "body projected or impelled forward by force," 1660s, from Modern Latin projectilis, from Latin proiectus, past participle of proicere "stretch out, throw forth," from pro- "forward" (see pro-) + combining form of iacere (past participle iactus) "to throw" (from PIE root *ye- "to

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