linstock

• lintstock

Corrupted from luntstock, Dutch lonistok, from lont (“lunt”) + stok (“stock, stick”). See link (“a torch”), lunt, and stock.

linstock (plural linstocks)

1. (historical) A pointed forked staff, shod with iron at the foot, to hold a lighted match for firing cannon.
   • 1598, Benjamin Jonson [i.e., Ben Jonson], “Euery Man in His Humour. A Comœdie. […]”, in The Workes of Ben Jonson (First Folio), London: […] Will[iam] Stansby, published 1616, OCLC 960101342, Act II, scene iii:

     […] now, sir, (as we were to ascend), their master gunner (a man of no mean skill and courage, you must think,) confronts me with his linstock ready to give fire;

   • 1599, William Shakespeare, “The Life of Henry the Fift”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act III, scene chorus]:

     The offer likes not: and the nimble gunner / With linstock now the devilish cannon touches, [Alarum, and chambers go off] / And down goes all before them.

   • 1823, [Walter Scott], Quentin Durward. […], volume (please specify |volume=I, II, or III), Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., OCLC 892089432:

     " […] And now, our news are told, noble Crevecoeur, and what think you they resemble?" "A mine full charged with gunpowder," answered Crevecoeur, "to which, I fear, it is my fate to bring the kindled linstock. Your news and mine are like flax and fire, which cannot meet without bursting into flame, or like certain chemical substances which cannot be mingled without an explosion."

   • 1863, Charles Reade, Hard Cash: A Matter-of-Fact Romance, Boston: Dana Estes & Co., Vol. I, Chapter VIII, p. 222,

     The ship no sooner crossed the schooner's bows than a Malay ran forward with a linstock. Pop went the colonel's ready carbine, and the Malay fell over dead, and the linstock flew out of his hand.

   For further quotations, see lintstock.