Where does “shotgun” come from?
Shotgun is a compound of English shot and English gun, ultimately from English going to via the contracted forms gonna and gunna.
shotgun (English): A gun which fires loads typically consisting of...
Definitions
- A gun which fires loads typically consisting of...
Ancestry of “shotgun”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|
| 1 | English | gun | A device for projecting a hard object very... |
| 2 | Middle English | gunne | A trebuchet or similar kind of pellet-firing... |
| 3 | Old Norse | Gunnhildr | — |
| 4 | Old Norse | Gunnr | — |
| 5 | Old Norse | guðr | battle, war |
| 6 | Proto-Germanic | gunþiz | battle |
| 7 | Proto-Indo-European | gʷʰéntis | striking, killing |
| 8 | Proto-Indo-European | gʷʰen- | to strike, slay, kill |
| 9 | Proto-Indo-European | bʰon- | — |
Words derived from “shotgun”