Shrapnels

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Pieces of metal or other materials that are expelled from an explosive device
2. fragments that cause injury or damage when explosives detonate
3. a term describing debris resulting from the burst of explosives during military conflict

Etymology: The plural "shrapnels" is the form of "shrapnel", and the singular is the one most people use, since the word covers fragments in general. The noun comes from Henry Shrapnel (1761–1842), a British army officer who invented an anti-personnel shell. Rather than firing bullets one at a time from a rifle's range, his shell carried a large number of bullets toward the target and released them there, at a far greater distance than a rifle could reach. Shrapnel's name is itself a puzzle. It is likely a metathesized form of Charbonnel, a diminutive of Old French "charbon", meaning "charcoal", a nickname probably given to someone for dark hair or complexion. So the word for a weapon's flying fragments carries the name of a man whose ancestors may have been called after coal.

Synonyms: fragments, splinters