The wooden block or stock that forms the back part of an early rifle or gun, originally rounded or ball-shaped in some designs.
From 'ball' plus 'stock,' referring to the gunstock's shape in early firearms, particularly when the rear portion was rounded or spherical.
Early gun designs literally shaped parts like balls because that's the strongest shape—before engineering became mathematical, craftsmen understood through intuition that spheres distribute stress evenly, which is why so many old tool and weapon parts were ball-shaped.
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