Etymologically
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musket

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /ˈmʌskət/, /ˈmʌskɪt/[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Middle French mousquet, mousquette,[2][3][4][5] from Italian moschetto (“arrow for a crossbow; small artillery piece; sparrowhawk”),[2][3][5][6] a diminutive of mosca (“fly”), from Latin musca (“fly”).[2][3][4][5][7] A doublet of mosquito.[8][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

A hand gun carried by infantry, originally a matchlock (c. 1587 in the OED and Barnhart; 1574 in Merriam-Webster Unabridged).[9][3][10]

Semantic evolution

The Italian word was first a kind of sparrowhawk, so called either for its small size or because it looks speckled with flies in flight.[4][8][11] Old guns were often named after animals, such as the falcon and falconet (light cannons), the basilisk and the culverin.[3][4][11] English had already borrowed musket as the name of the male sparrowhawk (c. 1425).[9][3] According to Merriam-Webster's Word Histories, the weapon was Spanish, and the French took it from Spain in the wars in Italy, but took its name from the Italians.[12] The musket was later replaced by the rifle.[4][10]

Timeline

  • c. 1425 – the male sparrowhawk.[9]
  • 1574 – first known use in Merriam-Webster Unabridged.[10]
  • c. 1587 – the firearm.[9][3][5]
  • 16th century – musketeer.[6]
  • 17th century – musketry.[6]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. A heavy, large-calibre, usually smoothbore muzzle-loading shoulder gun used by infantry from the 16th to the 18th century, the forerunner of the rifle.
  2. The male of the sparrowhawk.

Word family

  • musketry
  • musketeer
  • mosquito
  • midge
  • falconet

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
  4. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  6. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  8. ^ a b Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  9. ^ a b c d Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  10. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  11. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  12. ^ Merriam-Webster's Book of Word Histories, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster