[Phys-l] FW: "Ask Marilyn"

["John Clement" <clement@hal-pc.org>]

OK, that answers why there might be no connection between musketeers and
muskets in the Dumas novel.  But the fact remains that there is a dictionary
definition "A soldier armed with a musket." And there is "French
mousquetaire, from mousquet, musket".  So the connection between muskets and
the 3 musketeers might be strong.  Can anyone confirm the French etymology?

Incidentally on the web dictionary there is "A grenadier (derived from the
word grenade) was originally a specialized soldier, first established as a
distinct role in the mid to late 17th century, for the throwing of grenades
and sometimes assault operations. At this time grenadiers were chosen from
the strongest and largest soldiers."  So while British grenadiers are now
ceremonial, at one time they may have had grenades.  It is now an obsolete
specialization.

The Dumas novel seems more romantic on the screen with dramatic sword play
is how I would answer the question.  It also makes for extended scenes which
can be good filler which requires little intelligent plot development.
After all just shooting someone is a quick scene, and muskets could not
repeat fire unlike modern guns, so modern gun battles were not possible.

John M. Clement
Houston, TX


> On 1/2/2011 3:19 PM, John Clement wrote:
> > /snip/
> > So while many of these are very dumb to us, some do have interesting
> lines
> > of thought which we see in students all the time.  They are all
> answerable,
> > except for possibly the 3 Musketeers, as that is trying to divine the
> > thoughts inside the artists heads. /snip/
> > John M. Clement
> > Houston, TX
> The novel by Dumas pere was published in the 1840s and set in the epoch
> when the
>   French Royal Guard were called Mousquetaires.
>
> This question is comparable to asking why the (British) Grenadier Guards
>   do not carry grenades.
>
> Brian W
>
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