† misticon.

Etymology: Origin uncertain. Probably < unattested Lingua Franca *mistico (see below), or a Romance form derived from it, such as Italian mistico (1848) or Spanish mistico (a1843), although these are only attested later than the English word; compare also Catalan místic (1924), French mistic , mistique (1848), modern Greek μίστικο , Ottoman Turkish mistiqo (1884; Turkish mistiko ), and (Tunisian) Arabic mästîkū coasting vessel with two masts. Compare later mistic n. Compare also:1958 H. Kahane et al. Lingua Franca in Levant 307 The term mistico designates both a ship and a sail; the term appears, as far as we know, by the middle of the 18th cent. and is used, in varying forms, all round the Mediterranean. The assumed Lingua Franca word is perhaps < Arabic musaṭṭaḥ warship (13th cent. in Vocabulista, glossed ‘barca armata’), lit. ‘provided with (more than the usual number of) decks’, passive participle of saṭṭaḥa to cause to have a deck or decks < saṭḥ deck, although the Catalan form mestech , cited in R. Dozy Suppl. aux Dicts. Arabes (1881) as the intermediary form, has not been traced. This etymology relies on the semantic assumption that the masts of the vessel would need to be secured through deck(s). An alternative derivation < Arabic misṭaḥ flat surface, broad basket, large frying pan, etc. ( < saṭaḥa to flatten), is improbable, as there is no connection of sense. Derivation from a native Romance etymon has also been suggested (compare post-classical Latin misticius mixed, mingled (see mestizo n. and adj.), Italian mesticare to mix, ultimately < classical Latin miscēre to mix (see mix v.), with the idea that the sense developed from the fact that the vessel carried both lateen and square sails. N.E.D. (1907) gives the pronunciation as (mi·stiko) /ˈmɪstɪkəʊ/.