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In the early era of firearms, cannons of lesser size such as the falconet were sometimes named for birds of prey. Following this pattern, Italians applied moschetto or moschetta, meaning "sparrow hawk," to a small-caliber piece of ordnance in the 16th century. Spaniards borrowed this word as mosquete, and the French as mosquet, but both applied it to a heavy shoulder firearm rather than a cannon; English musket was borrowed soon thereafter from French. The word musket was retained after the original matchlock firing mechanism was replaced by a wheel lock, and retained still after the wheel lock was replaced by the flintlock. As the practice of rifling firearms—incising the barrel with spiral grooves to improve the bullet's accuracy—became more common, the term musket gradually gave way to the newer word rifle in the 18th century.
Examples of musket in a Sentence
Melanie Stetson Freeman, Christian Science Monitor, 17 Apr. 2025
The men, who’d assembled on the moors hours earlier, were armed with muskets, sticks, hatchets, and heavy blacksmith’s hammers.
—John Cassidy, New Yorker, 14 Apr. 2025
When the Second Amendment was written, civilians only carried muskets and bayonets.
—Pioneer Press, Twin Cities, 8 Feb. 2025
He’s pretty pumped to be under Claire’s tutelage again, and the two docs waste no time putting Henry under that sweet, sweet ether and removing the final musket ball.
—Maggie Fremont, Vulture, 29 Nov. 2024
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Cite this Entry
“Musket.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/musket. Accessed 25 Apr. 2025.
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musket
noun
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