English word origin

Etymology of fust

From Middle English fust, from Old French fust (“wood; bole, tree trunk”) (modern French fût), from Latin fūstis (“knobbed stick, cudgel, club”), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *bʰew- (“to hit”) or *gʷʰen- (“to strike

2 source sectionsExtended source reportWiktionary original ↗

In this entry · 2 source sections

The source etymologies

Wiktionary via Kaikki / Wiktextract

The source reports below are imported and unreviewed by *SET-U. Separate numbered origins and differing source variants are preserved; agreement within this extraction is not independent corroboration.

Source etymology 1

Original entry ↗

noun

A strong musty smell; mustiness. · The shaft (main body) of a column.

verb

To turn mouldy, to decay. · Of wine: to acquire an undesirable musty or woody taste from the cask in which it is stored.

Selected source glosses provide context, not a complete modern definition inventory

Relationships mentioned by the source

These are extracted mentions, not a timeline or a verified sequence of immediate parents.

Inherited-form mentionfustenm
Derivation mentionfustfro · wood; bole, tree trunk
Cognate mentionfûtfr
Derivation mentionfūstisla · knobbed stick, cudgel, club
Derivation mention*bʰew-ine-pro · to hit

Inspect preserved source fields

Raw extraction fields are retained for auditing. Their order does not establish ancestry.

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      "name": "inh",
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "enm",
        "3": "fust"
      },
      "expansion": "Middle English fust"
    },
    {
      "name": "der",
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "fro",
        "3": "fust",
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      },
      "expansion": "Old French fust (“wood; bole, tree trunk”)"
    },
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      },
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    },
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        "t": "knobbed stick, cudgel, club"
      },
      "expansion": "Latin fūstis (“knobbed stick, cudgel, club”)"
    },
    {
      "name": "der",
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "ine-pro",
        "3": "*bʰew-",
        "t": "to hit"
      },
      "expansion": "Proto-Indo-European *bʰew- (“to hit”)"
    }
  ],
  "links": [
    [
      "New Orleans",
      "New Orleans"
    ],
    [
      "Louisiana",
      "Louisiana"
    ],
    [
      "mould",
      "mould#Noun"
    ],
    [
      "mustiness",
      "mustiness"
    ],
    [
      "fust",
      "fust#Middle_English"
    ],
    [
      "fust",
      "fust#Old_French"
    ],
    [
      "fût",
      "fût#French"
    ],
    [
      "fūstis",
      "fustis#Latin"
    ],
    [
      "*bʰew-",
      "Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European/bʰew-"
    ],
    [
      "*gʷʰen-",
      "Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European/gʷʰen-"
    ]
  ],
  "references": [],
  "descendants": [],
  "lexical": [
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      "glosses": [
        "A strong musty smell; mustiness.",
        "The shaft (main body) of a column."
      ],
      "tags": [],
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Source etymology 2

Original entry ↗

noun

A type of small galley.

Selected source glosses provide context, not a complete modern definition inventory

Possibly from Portuguese fusta (“fust”), from Latin fusta (“beam (of wood)”), from fūstis (“knobbed stick, cudgel, club”); compare Middle French fuste.

Relationships mentioned by the source

These are extracted mentions, not a timeline or a verified sequence of immediate parents.

Derivation mentionfustapt
Derivation mentionfustala
Cognate mentionfustefrm

Inspect preserved source fields

Raw extraction fields are retained for auditing. Their order does not establish ancestry.

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    },
    {
      "name": "cog",
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        "1": "frm",
        "2": "fuste"
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Where this record stops

This page does not supply an independently verified sound-change sequence, first-use manuscript or complete family tree unless a cited analysis explicitly establishes one. Missing detail here is a limit of this record—not a claim that humanity knows nothing more.

An older meaning does not determine what a word must mean today. Follow the sources, preserve disagreements, and keep ancestry separate from interpretation.

Contribute located evidence for fust →

Source and snapshot

Imported from Wiktionary contributors; extracted by Tatu Ylonen / Wiktextract / Kaikki.org. Selected fields are reformatted and grouped; wording, source identity and etymology sections are retained. CC-BY-SA-4.0 applies to the imported source material.

Dump: 2026-10-01 · Extracted: 2026-10-30. These are snapshot dates, not the word’s first attestation or the page’s revision date.

Source entry and bibliography ↗Wiktionary revision history ↗Acquisition and rights ledger

Machine-source provenance

Source SHA-256: 5ff2c072f8099f2d2ce484bd6957bf179f046d2ad37bc36555edf8bb84cb5291
Import run: 73216b9a9b78ed3830994bf853103716f5a4dc57099e371e9f8fdc468facca26
Permanent entry ID: w-ZnVzdA