organ gun

English
WOTD – 28 July 2024

Etymology
An organ gun illustrated in Konrad Keyser’s work Bellifortis, a 15th-century manual of military technology.
The machine infernale or infernal machine, a homemade 25-barrel organ gun built by Giuseppe Marco Fieschi and used in an unsuccessful attempt to assassinate King Louis Philippe I of France on 28 July 1835. The weapon is now displayed at the Musée des Archives Nationales in Paris.

From organ +‎ gun. The multiple barrels of the device were thought to resemble the pipes of a pipe organ.[1]

Pronunciation
  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˌɔːɡ(ə)n ˈɡʌn/
  • Audio (Southern England)(file)
  • (General American) IPA(key): /ˌɔɹɡ(ə)n ˈɡʌn/
  • Rhymes: -ʌn
  • Hyphenation: or‧gan gun

Noun

organ gun (plural organ guns)

  1. (firearms, historical) A large, portable firearm normally supported by wheels, in which bullets may be fired from a row of several tubes in succession; it was chiefly used from the 14th to the 17th century.
    Synonyms: infernal machine, mitrailleur, rabauld, ribauldequin, ribaudkin, ribault

Hypernyms
  • volley gun

Hyponyms

Translations

References
  1. “organ gun, n.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, December 2023.

Further reading
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