Muskets may be old fashioned weapons of war, but they continue to uniquely influence our language today. Many times we unknowingly invoke idioms or sayings that refer to the use of muskets. Here are some examples.

Lock, Stock and Barrel

A musket has three parts: a lock which is the firing mechanism, the metal barrel and the wooden stock which holds the three pieces together. In our speach today, we use “lock, stock and bareel” to mean “all, everything or total”.

Go off half-cocked

When a person anxiously acts before they think, we say “they went off half-cocked”. The firing mechanism on a musket has three positions, uncocked, half-cocked and fully cocked. In the half-cocked position, a musket is in the safety position and can’t properly be fired. Hence an anxious person’s behavior is labelled “half-cocked” or acting before being ready to fire.

A flash in the pan

When firing a musket, the shooter places a small amount of gun powder in the pan. The flint strikes the pan to create a spark which ingnites a powder charge in the barrel which propels the ball out of the musket. If the spark does not ignite the gun powder in the barrel, there is only a “flash in the pan” and no projectile is launched. Today we refer to someone as a “flash in the pan” when they show some promise but fail to achieve intended objectives.

A skin flint

With each firing, the piece of flint that creates the spark to ignite the musket becomes a liitle less able to create a spark. Eventually the flint is worn down sufficiently that the musket will not fire and the flint needs to be chipped or skinned to make in serviceable again. Hence, in language today, a skin flint is someone who is cheap or overly frugal.

Keep your powder dry

When wet, the gun powder in the pan will not ignite and it many cases warfare ceased during heavy rains. However, the side that could keep its “gun powder dry” had a huge advantage. So today, we tell people to protect their recources for use or keep their powder dry for when they are truly ready for impactful action.

Shot your wad

While recently acquiring a sexual association, originally the idiom refered to wasting something. A wad is the paper cartridge which holds the musket ball and a proper amount gun powder and is inserted into the barrel with a ram rod. Since loading a musket was time consuming, if a musketeer wasted a shot, that was refered to as “shot a wad”.

Finally a unit of ammunition is called a round becasue a musket ball was round.

So next time you or one of your friends use one of these idioms, hark back to the original meaning. Muskets were the weapons of mass destruction for their day and played an important role in warfare for over 200 years.

Please add your own musket idioms to my list.