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Snaphance
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== Name == The origin of the name ''snaphance'' is thought to come from the [[Dutch language|Dutch]] {{Lang|nl|Snaphaan}}, which roughly means "pecking rooster" and relates to the shape of the mechanism and its downward-darting action (and would also explain the name "cock" for the beak-shaped mechanism which holds the flint). In German, the [[calque]] ''Schnapphahn'' moved away from the earlier definitions and has traditionally referred to a mounted [[highwayman]], who would have been likely to use a [[firearm]] of that nature. The French ''chenapan'' also changed its meaning in the seventeenth century to define a rogue or scoundrel. During the [[Second Northern War|Second Northern]] and [[Scanian War]]s, a "[[Snapphane]]" was a pro-Danish Guerilla-man in Scania, which had just been annexed by Sweden, as they wanted to belong to Denmark instead. In Swedish the word ''Snapphane'' is first recorded 1558 in a letter from [[Gustav I of Sweden|King Gustav I]] to his son [[John III of Sweden|Duke John of Finland]] "reffvelske snaphaner" (Snapphanar from Tallinn-Reval), earlier correspondence were discussing Estonian privateers and problems created by them in Russian commerce. In the inventories of the Royal Armoury in Stockholm the term ''snapphanelås'' (''snaphance lock'') appears first in 1730, after the conquest of the former Danish provinces of Skåne, Halland and Blekinge in the 1670s. The local peasant warriors were then called snapphanar and their typical smallbore rifles (see picture) were described as having ''snapphanelås'': locks or rifles used by the Snapphanar. In the earlier inventories the term used is always ''snapplås'' (''snaplock'').
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