The term bassoon was first documented in English in a 1728 dictionary and gained popularity in the late eighteenth century. It was derived from the French basson, which itself originated in the seventeenth century from the Italian bassone. This is derived from the word basso, meaning “bass”, with the augmentative suffix –one. Looking back further, basso can be traced to the Medieval Latin adjective bassus, meaning “low”, with various intriguing theories about its ultimate origin (possibly Celtic, Oscan, or Greek, though uncertain). Interestingly, the Italian term for bassoon is no longer bassone, but fagotto, meaning “bundle of sticks”, as bassoons can be dismantled into several pieces for transport. This is connected to the similar-sounding derogatory term in English and the word fascist, both linked to bundles of sticks.
