Muskets

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. These are early firearms with long barrels using gunpowder to shoot lead balls, widely utilized in battle before modern rifles, and are sought after by enthusiasts for display or educational purposes
2. History refers to these as manually loaded, gunpowder-powered, smoothbore weapons once used by infantry in war, which now serve as collectible or demonstration pieces
3. Firearms with extended barrels designed to be loaded by hand and fired using gunpowder, common as infantry weapons before the advent of rifles

Etymology: The name of this weapon comes from a bird. In Italian, "moschetto" was the name for a small sparrowhawk, and the word was later applied to a heavy gun, probably because of a shared small, quick, dangerous quality. The French then borrowed it as "mousquet," and English followed. The Italian bird name is generally traced to "mosca," meaning fly, so the origin may be a fly-like hawk, though the exact reasoning behind the link is uncertain. The same "mosca" root is behind Spanish "mosquito," a small flying insect, so the two words are distant relatives. Soldiers who carried the gun were called "musketeers," a term formed on the French "mousquetaire."