'Pistol' is likely Czech for 'pipe' — or possibly from Pistoia, Italy. Both etymologies remain hotly debated.
A small firearm designed to be held and fired with one hand.
From Middle French 'pistole,' from German 'Pistole,' probably from Czech 'píšťala' (pipe, tube, whistle, firearm), from 'píšťat' (to whistle, to squeak), from a Slavic onomatopoeic root imitating a whistling or piping sound. An alternative etymology derives it from Pistoia (Latin 'Pistoria'), an Italian city known for firearms manufacture in the 15th–16th centuries, where small handguns were supposedly first mass-produced. Both origins are debated, but the Czech derivation has stronger
The competing etymologies of 'pistol' — Czech 'píšťala' (a pipe/tube) versus Italian Pistoia (a gunmaking city) — have been debated for centuries. Both are plausible, and some historians suspect the word blended both influences as it spread through European trade networks.