snaphaunce

[snap-hans, -hahns]

noun

an early flintlock mechanism for igniting a charge of gunpowder in a gun.

Origin of snaphaunce

1580–90; < Dutch snaphaan (or German Schnapphahn) orig., highwayman, equivalent to snap(pen) to snatch, snap + haan rooster (Dutch haan, German Hahn, parallel to cock¹, mean both “rooster” and “hammer of a firearm”); source of final s unclear

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for snaphaunce

Historical Examples of snaphaunce

There were also matchlocks, snaphaunce pieces, pistols, swords and hangers (cutlasses).
Domestic Life in Virginia in the Seventeenth Century
Annie Lash Jester
The “snaphaunce” or fire-lock, is distinctly stated by Grose to be of Dutch origin,—hence the name.
Gunnery in 1858
William Greener
Textual remarks Page 12, snaphaunce is not a Dutch word; it is derived from the Dutch snaphaan.
Gunnery in 1858
William Greener
Cotgrave has arquebuse à fusil, "a snaphaunce," and explains fusil as "a fire-steele for a tinder-box."
The Romance of Words (4th ed.)
Ernest Weekley
I have a couple of wheel locks, to start with, and three miguelet-locks and an Italian snaphaunce.
Murder in the Gunroom
Henry Beam Piper