pistol [M16th] Pistol is a rare example of an early borrowing from Czech, from pišt’ala, ‘whistle, pipe’. The Hussite Wars in the 15th century were the first wars in which hand-held guns were of significance, and it is at this time that pišt’ala was used to describe a type of gun with a clear-sounding shot. The word rapidly spread through Europe and arrived in English via French.