An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/Flinte

by Friedrich Kluge

Flinte, feminine, ‘flintlock, gun, musket,’ first used in the 17th century; compare Danish flint, ‘musket’; probably akin to Swedish flinta, Danish flint, ‘stone,’ properly ‘flint-stone.’ Dutch and English preserve older terms — Dutch vuurroer, Modern High German Feuerrohr, English firelock. Flint, ‘stone,’ Anglo-Saxon and English flint, whence French flin, ‘thunderstone,’ is probably related to Greek πλίνθος, ‘brick.’