Seeing my country on English speaking forums always makes me happy, so I'll share a fun fact with you.
The English words "pistol" and "howitzer" come from Czech, originally. In the 15th Century we kinda went a bit crazy; first we made basically Protestantism before it was cool, and then when the guy who came up with it got burned at the stake, a horde of angry peasants formed what was basically medieval ISIS, except Christian instead of Muslim (although the whole business still caused a couple of crusades) and really high tech for its time, making use of a surprising number of innovative early firearms. Also a few people got thrown out the window in Prague which coined the term Defenestration. (From Latin: "De" - out of; "Fenestra" - window.)
The word Pistol comes from "píšťala"; literally means "whistle", and it was a primitive hand cannon, basically a tube on a wooden handle, usually attached by a leather strap. It was a single-shot weapon that was commonly used against cavalry.
The word Howitzer comes from "houfnice"; a literal translation is something like "crowd gun". Or "Crowder", hehe. It was an early field gun - unlike modern howitzers which are majorly used for indirect fire, this was a cannon where they packed the barrel with all kinds of random shit they found around, rocks, metal shavings, bits of brick; they put a massive powder charge behind that, and fired it into a crowd of charging infantry like a giant shotgun.
Seeing my country on English speaking forums always makes me happy, so I'll share a fun fact with you.
The English words "pistol" and "howitzer" come from Czech, originally. In the 15th Century we kinda went a bit crazy; first we made basically Protestantism before it was cool, and then when the guy who came up with it got burned at the stake, a horde of angry peasants formed what was basically medieval ISIS, except Christian instead of Muslim (although the whole business still caused a couple of crusades) and really high tech for its time, making use of a surprising number of innovative early firearms. Also a few people got thrown out the window in Prague which coined the term Defenestration. (From Latin: "De" - out of; "Fenestra" - window.)
The word Pistol comes from "píšťala"; literally means "whistle", and it was a primitive hand cannon, basically a tube on a wooden handle, usually attached by a leather strap. It was a single-shot weapon that was commonly used against cavalry.
The word Howitzer comes from "houfnice"; a literal translation is something like "crowd gun". Or "Crowder", hehe. It was an early field gun - unlike modern howitzers which are majorly used for indirect fire, this was a cannon where they packed the barrel with all kinds of random shit they found around, rocks, metal shavings, bits of brick; they put a massive powder charge behind that, and fired it into a crowd of charging infantry like a giant shotgun.