missile

Missile comes from Latin missile, meaning 'thrown weapon' or 'projectile,' the neuter form of missilis, 'throwable.' That word traces back to mittere, 'to send,' and entered English in 1611.

The word entered English in 1611, and a related French form, missile, appeared later in 1636 — both describing objects sent or thrown, long before rockets existed.

Missile shares its root, mittere ('to send'), with other English words built from the same Latin verb, since anything 'missile' was, at its core, something sent.