Etymology

blunderbuss

blun·der·buss
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Today it means: 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. Full definition →

Dutch donderbus
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The story

  1. Dutch · derived fromdonderbus“blunderbuss”
  2. English todayblunderbuss

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

Words from the same roots

Dutchdonderbus all →

thunderbox

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.