Part of writing historical romance is research. Mucho, mucho research. While editing my latest (MARKED BY THE MARQUESS, coming soon!) I learned something interesting while on my fav website - etymonline, my go to resource to figure out if my characters would say that word back in the regency era. I looked up the word 'gun' to surprising results.
First, yes, that word was in use so I don't have to keep writing pistol all the time. Sweet. But etymonline.com also mentioned the history of the word, and it is awesome. Apparently, the word gun is derived from a shortening of a woman's name, Gunilda. The name is from Old Norse and is a combination of gunnr and hildr, both meaning war.
It is also pointed out that women are often associated with guns, with military weapons being named after them, such as Big Bertha for a howitzer. I am a bit of a gun enthusiast myself so finding out that the word is derived from someone must have been a kick-ass woman in Norse mythology makes me inordinately happy.
And this is one of the reasons why I love writing historical romance. You never know what you're going to learn.
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