musket
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈmʌskət/
ipa: /ˈmʌskɪt/
rhymes: -ʌskɪt
Forms: form: muskets
form: musquet
Etymology: First attested around 1210 as a surname, and later in the 1400s as a word for the sparrowhawk (Middle English forms: musket, muskett, muskete (“sparrow hawk”)), from Middle French mousquet, from Old Italian moschetto (a diminutive of mosca (“fly”), from Latin musca) used to refer initially to a sparrowhawk (given its small size or speckled appearance) and then a crossbow arrow. The name was subsequently adopted for a heavier, shoulder-fired version of an arquebus, adhering to a pattern of naming firearms and cannons after birds of prey and similar creatures (compare falcon, falconet), a sense which was also borrowed into French and then (around 1580) into English. Cognate to Spanish mosquete, Portuguese mosquete. Smoothbore firearms continued to be called muskets even as they switched from using matchlocks to flintlocks to percussion locks, but with the advent of rifled muskets, the word was finally displaced by rifle.
Senses: examples: text: Soldier, soldier, won't you marry me, with your musket, fife and drum.
text: Sam, Sam, pick up thy musket.
text: […] you may be assured, had they known the terrour of Muskets, Caliuers and Piſtols, they would haue vſed the leſſe Bowes, Speares and Bills; […]
ref: 1590, Roger Williams, A Briefe diſscourſe of Warre, London: Thomas Orwin, page 37:
text: The Souldier having his Musket ſhoulder'd, muſt ſtand ſtraight upon his Limbs, hold up his Head, and look always to the commanding Officer, […]
ref: 1689, William Plunket, William III of England, “General Obſervations § IV”, in The General Exercise Ordered by His Highness the Prince of Orange, To be punctually obſerved of all the Infantry in Service of the States General of the United Provinces. […] , page 4:
text: The whole of the tumultuous scene vanished from the senses of Lionel at the flash of the musket of this man, and he sunk beneath the feet of the combatants, insensible of further triumph, and of every danger.
ref: 1869, J[ames] Fenimore Cooper, “Moral Tales and Sketches § Battle of Bunker Hill”, in H. A. Cleveland, editor, Golden Sheaves Gathered from the Fields of Ancient and Modern Literature: A Miscellany of Choice Reading for the Entertainment of the Old and the Young in Hours that Are Lonely and Weary, Zeigler, McCurdy & Co., page 24:
text: Probably, rifling evolved from the early observation of the feathers on an arrow-and from the practical results of cutting channels in a musket, originally to reduce fouling, then because it was found to improve accuracy of the shot.
ref: 1949, Albert Manucy, “The Era of Artillery § Rifling”, in Artillery Through the Ages[:] A Short Illustrated History of Cannon, Emphasizing Types Used in America, Reprint 1985 edition, page 14:
glosses: A kind of firearm formerly carried by the infantry of an army, originally fired by means of a match, or matchlock, for which several mechanical appliances (including the flintlock, and finally the percussion lock) were successively substituted; ultimately superseded by the rifle.
topics: falconry
hobbies
hunting
lifestyle
glosses: A male Eurasian sparrowhawk (Accipiter nisus).
Derived terms: musket ball
musketed
musketless
musketlike
musketproof
musketry
Related terms: musketeer
musketoon