Musket
/ˈmʌskɪt/noun
A shoulder-fired firearm, especially an older smoothbore military gun.
Did you know?The English word likely came through French from Italian muschetto, a term that originally meant a small hawk, showing how weapons were once named with the language of birds of prey.
Etymological Timeline
Late Latin
LL
musca
“fly”
Medieval Latin
ML
muschetto
“small hawk; a diminutive form associated with a sparrowhawk”
Old Italian
It
moschetto
“small hawk; later, a small missile or firearm”
Middle French
Fr
mousquet
“musket; firearm”
16th Century
English
musket
“a firearm, originally a type of heavy arquebus”