ETYM French mousquet, Italian moschetto, formerly, a kind of hawk; cf. Old Fren. mousket, moschet, a kind of hawk falcon, French mouchet, prop., a little fly (the hawk prob. being named from its size), from Latin musca a fly. Related to Mosquito.
A long-barrelled muzzle-loading shoulder gun formerly used by infantrymen.

A double-barreled smoothbore shoulder weapon for firing shot at short ranges; SYN. scattergun.