Harquebuses

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Early long-barreled firearms that were fired while rested on a forked support, used by soldiers in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries
2. Old matchlock guns of the early modern era, typically heavy weapons steadied on a stand before being discharged
3. Historic portable firearms from the late medieval and Renaissance periods, supported on a rest or hook when aimed and fired

Etymology: The name describes the gun's most distinctive feature: a hook. Its German ancestor, "hakebusse" in Middle Low German (or "hakebus" in Middle Dutch), joined "hôk", meaning "hook", with "busse", a word for a box or, in this sense, a firelock. The hook was the device that held the weapon steady while it was fired, most likely hooked over a wall or a rest, which is why the weapon earned its name from that part rather than from its barrel or its powder. The word passed into French as "harquebuse", where it settled into the form English later adopted. The plural "harquebuses" is simply the regular English plural of "harquebus", the spelling used for these early matchlock guns, which were heavy, slow to load, and fired by a lit match held to the powder.

Synonyms: arquebus, hackbut