different between barrel vs blunderbuss

English

Etymology

From Middle English barel, from Anglo-Norman baril, Old French baril, bareil (“barrel”), of uncertain origin. An attempt to link baril to Old French barre (“bar, bolt”) (compare Medieval Latin barra (“bar, rod”)) via assumed Vulgar Latin *barr?culum meets the phonological requirement, but fails to connect the word semantically. The alternate connection to Frankish *baril, *beril or Gothic ???????????????????????? (b?rils, “container for transport”), from Proto-Germanic *barilaz (“barrel, jug, container”), from Proto-Indo-European *b?er-, *b?r?- (“to carry, transport”), is more plausible as it connects not only the form of the word but also the sense; equivalent to bear +? -le. Compare also Old High German biril (“jug, large pot”), Luxembourgish Bärel, Bierel (“jug, pot”), Old Norse berill (“barrel for liquids”), Old English byrla (“barrel of a horse, trunk, body”). More at bear.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?bæ??l/, [?bæ???]
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?bæ??l/, [?bæ???], /?b????l/, [?b?????]
• (Mary–marry–merry distinction)
• (Mary–marry–merry merger)
• Rhymes: -æ??l

Noun

barrel (plural barrels)

1. (countable) A round vessel or cask, of greater length than breadth, and bulging in the middle, made of staves bound with hoops, and having flat ends or heads. Sometimes applied to a similar cylindrical container made of metal, usually called a drum.

2. The quantity which constitutes a full barrel: the volume or weight this represents varies by local law and custom.
3. A solid drum, or a hollow cylinder or case

4. A metallic tube, as of a gun, from which a projectile is discharged.
5. (archaic) A tube.
6. (zoology) The hollow basal part of a feather.
7. (music) The part of a clarinet which connects the mouthpiece and upper joint, and looks rather like a barrel (1).
8. (surfing) A wave that breaks with a hollow compartment.
9. (US, specifically New England) A waste receptacle.

10. The ribs and belly of a horse or pony.
11. (obsolete) A jar.
12. (biology) Any of the dark-staining regions in the somatosensory cortex of rodents, etc., where somatosensory inputs from the contralateral side of the body come in from the thalamus.
13. (baseball) A statistic derived from launch angle and exit velocity of a ball hit in play.

    For quotations using this term, see Citations:barrel.

Synonyms

• (round vessel): cask, tun

Coordinate terms

• (round vessel): keg, vat

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

barrel (third-person singular simple present barrels, present participle barrelling or barreling, simple past and past participle barrelled or barreled)

1. (transitive) To put or to pack in a barrel or barrels.
2. (intransitive) To move quickly or in an uncontrolled manner.

   He came barrelling around the corner and I almost hit him.

   • Snow shattered and spilled down the slope. Within seconds, the avalanche was the size of more than a thousand cars barreling down the mountain and weighed millions of pounds.

Translations

See also

• cooper

French

Etymology

From English.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ba.??l/

Noun

barrel m (plural barrels)

1. Alternative form of baril

English

Etymology

From Dutch donderbus (“blunderbuss”, literally “thunder gun”), which was altered under the influence of blunder.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?bl?nd?b?s/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?bl?nd??b?s/
• Hyphenation: blun?der?buss

Noun

blunderbuss (plural blunderbusses)

1. An old style of muzzleloading firearm and early form of shotgun with a distinctive short, large caliber barrel that is flared at the muzzle, therefore able to fire scattered quantities of nails, stones, shot, etc. at short range.
   • 1817, Merriweather Lewis & William Clark, Travels to the Source of the Missouri River, and Across the American Continent to the Pacific Ocean, Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown (1817), page 354:

     We fired the blunderbuss several times by way of salute, and soon after landed at the bank near the village of the Mahahas, or Shoe Indians, and were received by a crowd of people, who came to welcome our return.

   • 1942, Carl G. Erich, "Flintlock Blunderbuss", Popular Science, June 1942:

     One of the most picturesque of the old flintlock guns is the blunderbuss, which was often carried by coach guards for protection against highwaymen.

   • 2007, Norm Flayderman, Flayderman's Guide to Antique American Firearms, Gun Digest Books (2007), ?ISBN, page 764:

     The blunderbuss never gained great favor in the American colonies or early United States.

Translations

Verb

blunderbuss (third-person singular simple present blunderbusses, present participle blunderbussing, simple past and past participle blunderbussed)

1. (transitive) To shoot with a blunderbuss.

References

• Michael Quinion (2004) , “Blunderbuss”, in Ballyhoo, Buckaroo, and Spuds: Ingenious Tales of Words and Their Origins, Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Books in association with Penguin Books, ?ISBN

Further reading

• blunderbuss on Wikipedia.Wikipedia