An alternative spelling of harquebus; an early type of portable gun or firearm used in the 16th and 17th centuries.
Variant spelling of harquebus, from Dutch 'haakbus'. This alternate form appears in older English texts and represents the transitional period when the word's spelling was still being standardized in English.
This spelling variant shows how modern English spelling wasn't fixed yet—different writers spelled 'harquebus' in multiple ways until printing standardized it. Language was like a free-for-all during the Renaissance!
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