mitrailleuse means A breech-loading machine gun consisting of a number of barrels fitted together, so arranged that the barrels can be fired simultaneously, or successively, and rapidly. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 89 out of 100.
mitrailleuse is pronounced /ˌmiːtɹəˈjɜz/.
Why “mitrailleuse” is a great word
MITRAILLEUSE — [Noun] A breech-loading machine gun, typically of an early multi-barrel design, capable of firing a volley of small-caliber projectiles in rapid succession. From French *mitrailleuse*, from *mitrailler* (“to fire grapeshot”), from *mitraille* (“small shot, scrap metal”), from Old French *mistraille* (“pieces of money, scrap metal”), from *mite* (“a small Flemish copper coin”). Unlike the generic “machine gun” or the specific, hand-cranked “Gatling gun,” the mitrailleuse is a distinctly French volley weapon of the 19th century. It is the industrial hive of twenty-five cold, parallel barrels; the sound of a regiment’s musketry condensed into one metallic cough; and the acrid smoke hanging over a sunken road at Gravelotte. It embodies the brutal conversion of petty coin and scrap metal into a new, mechanistic arithmetic of death.
noun
- A breech-loading machine gun consisting of a number of barrels fitted together, so arranged that the barrels can be fired simultaneously, or successively, and rapidly.