The Etymology of Marionette
Marionette is a charming case of the diminutive doing double duty. It descends from the French personal name Marion, itself a diminutive of Marie (Mary), to which French has added a second diminutive suffix -ette. So a marionette is, in literal Old French terms, a little little Mary. The puppet sense arose in medieval France, where small wooden articulated figures depicted the Virgin Mary in church nativity plays and miracle dramas. These small Marys were the original marionnettes; as the puppet tradition spread to other characters and contexts — fairground entertainments, courtly diversions, satirical sketches — the name stayed and broadened to mean any string-operated puppet. English borrowed the term around 1620, by which point its religious origin had largely faded. The Hebrew name Maryam (Mary, Miriam) entered Greek as Maria, Latin as Maria, Old French as Marie, and from there into countless European derivatives. Italian preserves a parallel form, marionetta, with the same meaning. The metaphorical marionette — a person controlled by hidden strings — is attested in English from the late 18th century.