Musquet

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A historic long gun fired from the shoulder, loaded through the muzzle and used by infantry before rifling became common
2. An old type of smoothbore firearm with a long barrel, carried by soldiers in earlier centuries and ignited by a flintlock or matchlock
3. A kind of antique shoulder weapon that was muzzle-loaded and discharged by a spark or slow match in earlier military history

Etymology: The word "musquet" is an older English spelling of "musket," the long smoothbore firearm carried by infantry for centuries. It came into English from French "mousquet," and the French term had a telling origin of its own: it was a diminutive-style name for a kind of hawk or sparrowhawk, the "musket" being a small bird of prey, a sense English later used for the bird as well. The French name was transferred from the bird to the weapon, presumably because the early firearms were small and compact, a comparison that fit the bird's size. The same meaning of "musket" for a small hawk survives in English dictionaries, so the weapon is named after a bird rather than the other way round.

Synonyms: musket, firearm