Origin and history of ricochet

1758, originally in a military sense, "to subject to ricochet fire," from French ricochet (n.) "the skipping of a shot, or of a flat stone on water" (see ricochet (n.)). Of the thrown object, "to skip, rebound, bound by touching a flat surface and glancing off," by 1828. Related: Ricochetted; ricochetting. A native dialect word for "throw thin, flat stones so that they skip over the surface of water" is scud (1874).

1769, "a firing of projectiles to make them skip or rebound along a flat surface," from ricochet (v.) or French ricochet "the skipping of a shot or flat stone on water," but in earliest French use (15c.) "a verbal to-and-fro," and only in the phrase fable du ricochet, an entertainment in which the teller of a tale skillfully evades questions, and chanson du ricochet, a kind of repetitious song. The word is of obscure and uncertain origin.