Musquets

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Early long-barrelled firearms that were loaded through the muzzle and fired from the shoulder before rifles became standard
2. Old smoothbore guns carried by infantry soldiers, typically fired from the shoulder and loaded with powder and ball
3. Antique muzzle-loading shoulder weapons once used by foot soldiers in armies across Europe and the American colonies

Etymology: "Musquets" is simply the plural of "musquet", an older spelling of "musket". The singular came into English from French "mousquet", and the plural simply follows the usual English pattern of adding an "s" to a noun. The spelling with "qu" was common in earlier centuries before the form we now use became standard. The word names a long gun, the kind of firearm loaded from the muzzle and fired with a match or flint, which was the standard infantry weapon of the early modern period. Its French source is the word that gave English the name for the weapon in the first place, so the spelling simply reflects the French form as it was taken into English.

Synonyms: muskets, firearms, flintlocks, arquebuses