Where does “spinet” come from?

Spinet comes from Italian spinetta, derived from Latin -etum and Latin -tus suffixes applied to a Proto-Indo-European root spey-.

spinet (English): A short, compact harpsichord or piano; A spinney

Definitions

  1. A short, compact harpsichord or piano; A spinney

Ancestry of “spinet”, step by step

spinet traces back through two separate lines of ancestry.

via Italian spinetta

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1Italianspinettaspinet, a type of piano or similar instrument
2Italianspinathorn; spine, prickle; plug
3Latinspīnaa thorn or a thorny tree or shrub, such as whitethorn, hawthorn, or blackthorn
4Proto-Italicspeināthorn
5Proto-Indo-Europeanspēy-to stretch; thrive; succeed

via Latin spīnētum

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1Latinspīnētuma thorn hedge, a thicket of thorns
2Latin-ētumused to form nouns from certain plant or tree names to denote a place where the species grows or is made to grow; grove, thicket, woods; orchard, plantation, -yard, garden
Every word from Proto-Indo-European spēy- →Every word from Proto-Italic speinā →Every word from Latin spīna →
spinet — Etymology, Origin & Word History | Etymology Explorer