harquebus

• arquebus, hackbuss, hackbut, hagbus, hagbut, hagebut, harbush, harquebuse, harquebuss

From French harquebuse, borrowed from Middle Low German hakebusse or Middle Dutch hakebus, hagebus (modern Dutch haakbus), from hôk (“hook”) + busse (“box; firelock”), from Old Saxon hōk + *buhsa, from Proto-Germanic *hōkaz + *buhsā.

• IPA^(key): /ˈhɑɹkɪbʌs/, /ˈhɑɹkwɪbʌs/

harquebus (plural harquebuses or harquebusses)

1. An obsolete matchlock firearm.
   • 1850, William Gilmore Simms, The Lily and the Totem: or, The Huguenots in Florida‎, Digitalized edition, Baker and Schribner, published 2009, page 292:

     All the while they had their eye and foot so quicke and readie, that as soone as ever they saw the harquebuse raised to the cheeke, so soon were they on the ground, and eftsoone to answer with their bowes, and to the their way, if by chance they perceived that we were about to take them.

2. A portable gun, varying in size from a small cannon to a musket. When used in the field it was supported upon a tripod or trestle.