"firearm for infantry" (later replaced by the rifle), 1580s, from Middle French mousquette, also the name of a kind of sparrow-hawk, diminutive of mosca "a fly," from Latin musca (see midge). The hawk so called either for its size or because it looks speckled when in flight. Early firearms often were given names of beasts (compare dragoon, also falcon, a kind of cannon mentioned by Hakluyt), and the equivalent word in Italian was used to mean "an arrow for a crossbow." The French word was borrowed earlier into English (early 15c.) in its literal sense of "sparrow-hawk."
中文解释
1. 三个火枪手(Three Musketeers) => musket.
实用例句
1. I hunted with a musket two years ago.
两年前我用滑膛枪打猎。来自辞典例句
2. Not a bough waved, not the gleam of a musket - barrel betrayed the presence of our foes.
