_Pistol._--What is the date of the original introduction of this word into
our vocabulary in either of the senses in which it is equivocally used by
Falstaff in 1 _Henry IV._, Act. V. Sc. 3.? In the sense of fire-arms,
pistols seem to have been unknown by that name as late as the year 1541;
for the stat. 33 Hen. VIII. c. 6., after reciting the murders, &c.
committed "with cross-bows, little short hand-guns, and little hagbuts,"
prohibits the possession of "any hand-gun other than such as shall be in
the stock and gun of the length of one whole yard, or any hagbut or
demihake other than such as shall be in the stock and gun of the length of
three quarters of one yard." But throughout the act there is no mention of
the word "pistol."