Etymology

handgun

H4A1N1D2G2U1N1

Today it means: A small gun with a relatively short barrel, designed to be held and operated with a single hand. Full definition →

English gun ← Middle English gunne ← Old Norse Gunnhildr
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

The story

  1. Proto-Germanic*handuz
  2. Proto-West Germanic*handu
  3. Old Englishhand
  4. Middle Englishhond
  5. Englishhand
  6. Proto-Indo-European*gʷʰen-
  7. Proto-Indo-European*gʷʰéntis
  8. Proto-Germanic*gunþiz
  9. Old Norsegunnr
  10. Proto-Indo-European*kelh₂-
  11. Proto-Indo-European*kelh₂tís
  12. Proto-Germanic*hildiz
  13. Old Norsehildr
  14. Old NorseGunnhildr
  15. Middle Englishgunne
  16. Englishgun
  17. English todayhandgun

From hand + gun.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.