'bagpipe' originates from Middle English, combining the words 'bag' and 'pipe' (from Old English 'pīpe'), where 'bag' meant 'a sack or pouch' and 'pipe' meant 'a tube for producing wind-instrument sound'.

'bagpipe' was used in Middle English as a compound of 'bag' + 'pipe' (variants such as 'bagpype' appeared) and eventually became the modern English word 'bagpipe'; the verb form 'to bagpipe' developed from the noun meaning 'to play the bagpipe'.

Initially it referred literally to 'a pipe with a bag' (a simple instrument made of a bag and pipe); over time it came to denote the specific traditional instrument (and derivatives such as the verb 'to bagpipe').