musket

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a long, muzzle-loading shoulder firearm, especially the smoothbore infantry weapon used before rifles became standard

   The infantryman poured powder down the barrel before loading his musket.

Through Middle French mousquet from Italian moschetto, a diminutive of mosca ('fly'). The Italian word was also used for a sparrowhawk and a crossbow bolt before it named a firearm. This follows a wider European habit of naming weapons after animals, especially birds of prey.

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