Young Brunette Girl Shows Off On The Cannon

Cannon is derived from the Old Italian word cannone, meaning large tube, which came from Latin canna, in turn originating from the kannē—Greek for cane, or reed, and then generalized to mean any hollow tube-like object; ultimately deriving from the Akkadian term qanu, meaning tube or reed. The word has been used to refer to a gun since 1326 in Italy, and 1418 in England. Cannon serves both as the singular and plural of the noun, although the plural cannons is also accepted in American English.
Any large, smoothbore, muzzle-loading gun—used before the advent of breech-loading, rifled guns—may be referred to as a cannon, though the term specifically refers to a gun designed to fire a 42-pound (19 kg) shot, as opposed to a demi-cannon (32 pounds (15 kg)), culverin (18 pounds (8.2 kg)). or demi-culverin (9 pounds (4.1 kg)). Gun specifically refers to a type of cannon that fires projectiles at high speeds, and usually at relatively low angles; they have been used in warships extensively, and as field artillery, as well. The term cannon also applies to the autocannon, a modern gun with a high rate of fire. Autocannon have been used extensively in fighter aircraft since World War II, and are sometimes used on land vehicles.
The earliest known cannon, though not driven by gunpowder, was invented by Ctesibius of Alexandria, in the 3rd century BC. Little is known about this primitive invention—as most of Ctesibius' works were lost—but it was noted by Philo of Byzantium that it operated using compressed air. Like firearms, cannon are a descendant of the fire lance, a gunpowder-filled tube attached to the end of a spear and used as a flamethrower in China. Shrapnel was sometimes placed in the barrel, so that it would fly out along with the flames. Eventually, the paper and bamboo of which fire lance barrels were originally constructed came to be replaced by metal. It has been disputed at which point flame-projecting cannon were abandoned in favor of missile-projecting ones, as words meaning either incendiary or explosive are commonly translated as gunpowder. The earliest known depiction of a gun is a sculpture from a cave in Sichuan, dating to the 12th century, that portrays a figure carrying a vase-shaped bombard, firing flames and a ball. The oldest surviving gun, dated to 1288, has a muzzle bore diameter of 2.5 cm (1 in); the second oldest, dated to 1332, has a muzzle bore diameter of 10.5 cm (4 in).