A small, short-barreled handgun or pistol that can be concealed easily.
Named after Henry Derringer, a 19th-century Philadelphia gunsmith who manufactured small pocket pistols. His name became so associated with the product that it became the generic term for that type of weapon.
Henry Derringer's name lives on in history textbooks because his little guns were so popular—his derringers appear in Wild West stories and assassination accounts, making his name synonymous with concealed weapons!
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