firearm

Etymology

It is formed from English fire + arms.^{[2][3][4][5][6]} The OED compares French arme à feu, recorded in Middle French by 1566, Italian arma da fuoco (1583 or earlier), Dutch vuurwapen (1686) and German Feuerwaffe (1660 or earlier), all used both of small arms and of artillery, and the earlier English phrase “weapon of fire”.^[2] The first element goes back to Old English fyr,^[3] and arms to Old French armes (“arms, weapons; war”), from Latin arma (“weapons; tools”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A weapon that fires a missile by means of an explosive charge: 1643, in the Agreement and Protestation of Cornwall and Devon.^[2] Etymonline dates it to the 1640s, Merriam-Webster to 1646 and Dictionary.com to 1640–50.^[3][5][6]

Semantic evolution

At first the word covered anything that fired a missile by the combustion of gunpowder, from a pistol to a cannon.^[3][2] In later use it came to mean especially a small, portable weapon such as a pistol or rifle,^[2][4] and Merriam-Webster notes that it is usually used only of small arms.^[5] The Shorter Oxford finds it usually in the plural.^[4]

Timeline

• 1643 – a weapon firing a missile by an explosive charge.^[2]
• 1646 – first record in Merriam-Webster.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A portable gun, such as a pistol, rifle or shotgun, that fires a projectile by an explosive charge: The police found a firearm under the driver's seat.^[7][5][2][8]
2. (law) A weapon that expels a projectile, such as a bullet or pellets, by the combustion of gunpowder or another explosive.^[9]
3. Formerly, any weapon firing a missile by an explosive charge, including artillery.^[3][2]

Word family

• firearmed

Related words

• fire
• arms
• armament

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
7. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
8. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
9. ^ Garner, Bryan A., ed. (2004), Black's Law Dictionary, 8th ed., St. Paul, Minn.: Thomson West