Nearby Words
Synonyms

musket

[muhs-kit] Origin

mus·ket

[muhs-kit]
noun
1.
a heavy, large-caliber smoothbore gun for infantry soldiers, introduced in the 16th century: the predecessor of the modern rifle.
2.
the male sparrow hawk, Accipiter nisus.

Origin:
1580–90; < Middle French mousquet < Italian moschetto crossbow arrow, later musket, orig. kind of hawk, equivalent to mosch(a) fly (< Latin musca) + -etto -et
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Musket is always a great word to know.
So is doohickey. Does it mean:
a gadget; dingus; thingumbob.
an extraordinary or unusual thing, person, or event; an exceptional example or instance.
Collins
World English Dictionary
musket (ˈmʌskɪt)
 
n
a long-barrelled muzzle-loading shoulder gun used between the 16th and 18th centuries by infantry soldiers
 
[C16: from French mousquet, from Italian moschetto arrow, earlier: sparrow hawk, from moscha a fly, from Latin musca]

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Etymonline
Word Origin & History

musket
"firearm for infantry," 1580s, from M.Fr. mousquette, a kind of sparrow-hawk, dim. of mosca "a fly," from L. musca (see midge). The hawk so called either for its size or because it looks speckled when in flight. Early firearms were often given names of beasts (cf. dragoon),
EXPAND
and the equivalent word was used in It. to mean "an arrow for a crossbow." The M.Fr. word was borrowed earlier (early 15c.) in its literal sense of "sparrow-hawk."
COLLAPSE
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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