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howitzer

 (n): a muzzle-loading high-angle gun with a short barrel that fires shells at high elevations for a short range
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about 1 month ago chained_bear said:

This term always sounded very modern to my ears—20th century at least—but it was used in the late 18th-early 19th centuries.

Edit: checked etymology in the OED: "A deriv. of prec.; the same suffix appears in Du. houwitser (in 1663 houvietser), Fr. obusier for earlier obus (see Hatz.-Darm.)." So I guess it was originally a seventeenth-century term.

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first listed by:
Dain (905 words)
appears in these lists:
Dain's Words, by Dain
spicolli's Words, by spicolli
Lethal Weapons, by rduke
Military Matters, by bilby
Blitzkrieg, by bilby
Historical Military Terms of Interest, by chained_bear