Etymology: < Anglo-Norman musket (first half of the 14th cent.), Middle French mousket (c1160 in Old French (Picardy) in plural form mouskès ), variants of Anglo-Norman mouschet , muschet , muchet , Middle French mouschet (13th cent.; c1175 in Old French in form moschet ; Middle French mouchet (1536), esmouchet (1560; with es- after espervier male sparrowhawk), French émouchet , (archaic) mouchet ) < musche , etc., ‘fly’ (see mouche n.; compare Old French (Picardy) mouske (c1200)) + -et -et suffix¹. Compare post-classical Latin muchetus, muschettus, musketus male sparrowhawk (13th cent. in British sources), Old Occitan mosquet (c1220), Italian moschetto (1598 in Florio; but compare Italian moscardo (14th cent.), in the same sense but with different diminutive suffix), and Middle Dutch musket, mosschet (Dutch mosket), the latter a borrowing < French.The name apparently alludes to the diminutive size of the bird, the male being about a third smaller than the female. Attested earlier as a surname: Willelmus Musket (?1208–13), Radulpho Musket (1275), Petrus Musket (1313).

Etymology: < Middle French mosquet (1568), Middle French, French mousquet (1571), and (in feminine form) Middle French mosquette (1564), mousquette (a1585) < Italian moschetto (a1536), moschetta (a1573), both attested earlier in the sense ‘arrow from a crossbow’ (a1300, a1336 respectively), apparently originally an extended use of moschetto sparrowhawk (although this is first attested much later: see musket n.¹). Compare Spanish mosquete (1535), Portuguese mosquete (16th cent.).The development of sense appears to have been: ‘sparrowhawk; arrow from a crossbow; crossbow; musket’ (compare also the use of arrows discharged from muskets referred to in the note at main sense). With regard to the practice of naming types of ballistic weapons after birds of prey, compare falcon n., falconet n., saker n.¹, and saker n.²