Etymology

mitraille

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Today it means: shot or bits of iron used sometimes in loading cannon Full definition →

Old French mitaille
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The story

  1. Old French · derived frommitaille“small coins; hence scrap iron, old iron; then grapeshot”
  2. English todaymitraille

From Old French mitaille (“small coins; hence scrap iron, old iron; then grapeshot”); originally diminutive of mite (“small coin”). See also mitrailleur.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.