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[–] 39 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (4 children)

The french word "mousquet" means first a place of the belt where you hold stuff. Hence the name of the sword that you hold there, and the military unit that would were them even within the capital city as they were charged to protect the king. Later, it meant the firearm you could hold at the same place.

Source: the wiktionnaire I looked once I had about the same thought.

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  • [–] 8 points 1 year ago

    You got a link to your source on that?

    Merriam-webster says mousquet came from the Old Italian moschetto meaning a small artillery piece. It's also a term for a male sparrow hawk. Which there was a traditio of naming weapons after animals.

    https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/musket

    The Wikipedia page for musketeer says this:

    The Musketeers of the Guard were a junior unit, initially of roughly company strength, of the military branch of the Royal Household. They were created in 1622 when Louis XIII furnished a company of light cavalry (the "carabiniers", created by Louis' father Henry IV) with muskets.

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musketeer

    So the term Musketeer comes from the fact that they are armed with muskets. I cant find anything about a mousquet being a place on the belt to hold stuff.

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  • [–] 5 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    Since when could you hold a musket on your belt?

    They typically had barrels over three feet long, with a total weapon length over four feet.

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