thunderstick

English

An 18th-century French thunderstick.

thundersticks (2)

Alternative forms

• thunder-stick, thunder stick

Etymology

From thunder +‎ stick. Originally used by or ascribed to members of non-European cultures or anthropomorphized animals describing firearms.

Noun

thunderstick (plural thundersticks)

1. A gun or cannon, especially a rifle.

   Synonym: fire-stick

   The man pointed his thunderstick at the buffalo, and with a great noise and fire, the buffalo fell down dead.

   We sneaked into the soldiers' camp, and stole five thundersticks.

   • 1904, W.A. Fraser, “The Narrative of Buffalo and Bison”, in Metropolitan, volume 20, number 11, pages 195–196:

     ...the Men, when they hunt us with their arrows or a thunder-stick which strikes with a loud noise...

   • 1931 He Dog, interviewed by Mari Sandoz (John Colhoff, interpreter), in The Beaver Men: Spearheads of Empire (University of Nebraska Press, 1964):

     Two men with beards... carrying thundersticks... were in the village above...

   • 1938, Mark Raymond Harrington, The Indians of New Jersey: Dickon among the Lenapes:

     We have heard that they have magic thunder sticks; that all they need do is point the stick at a man and thunder and lightning comes out of it and the man dies.

   • 1985, Gary Larson, Bride of the Far Side:

     (Two bears discussing a rifle found lying on the ground): Thunderstick? ...You actually said 'Thunderstick?'... That, my friend, is a Winchester 30.06.

   • 2010, Our Story: Aboriginal Voices on Canada's Past:

     ...the captain of the vessel ordered a crew member to fire the thunderstick, as ancestors called the gun.
     Word of bearded White men and their thundersticks was carried inland to other Indians.

2. A narrow plastic balloon that is used as a promotional noise maker by hitting one against another.
   • 2008 February 8, The New York Times, “Classical Music/Opera Listings”, in New York Times‎^[1]:

     Called “James Tenney and Milton Babbitt : American Iconoclasts,” the mini-festival begins on Saturday with a work by Mr. Tenney, who died in 2006, on a program including pieces by Larry Polansky, Michael Byron and Henry Cowell (the 1925 “Ensemble” for string quartet and thundersticks). Mr. Babbitt is honored on Sunday with a program that includes, among other works, a premiere by Christopher Buchenholz.