laser gun n.

a weapon that fires a laser

The 1961 quote refers to an actual laser, not a weapon.

Weaponry

  • [1961 Business Week 30 Dec. 46/2 (heading)

    Laser gun shoots light rays.]

  • 1963 R. Zelazny Nine Starships Waiting in Fantastic Mar. 100/2 page image Roger Zelazny bibliography

    He caressed a laser-gun the size of an automatic pencil, then slipped it into his breast pocket.

  • 1964 Madera Daily Tribune 10 Feb. 6/5 page image

    The Outer Limits has a good show in ‘The Bellero Shield’, an examination of an all-consuming ambition. Sally Kellerman wants scientist-husband Martin Landau to have a place in history. When she accidentally releases a Creature from another world by means of her husband’s laser gun, she sees her chance. However, a wealthy father-in-law who doesn’t like her is more of a hindrance than the Creature’s basic distrust of her.

  • 1964 G. Roddenberry Cage 29 June in S. E. Whitfield & G. Roddenberry Making of ‘Star Trek’ (1968) i. iv. 63 Gene Roddenberry bibliography

    He slowly draws his Laser gun, adjusts the setting on it.

  • 1972 S. Tall Gods on Olympus in Worlds of If Oct. 37/2 page image Stephen Tall bibliography

    She was dressed for the field, equipped with zoom binoculars, magnaflash and laser gun swinging from her belt.

  • 1985 O. S. Card Ender’s Game v. 41 Orson Scott Card bibliography

    A lasergun, it looked like, since the end was solid, clear glass.

  • 2002 J. Williamson Luck of the Legion in Absolute Magnitude Summer–Fall 21/1 page image Jack Williamson bibliography

    He raised the captured laser gun, shaking in his clammy hands, and found the firing button. Its scarlet flash stabbed the dish.

  • 2011 B. Cooper Cracking the Sky in Cracking the Sky (2015) 281 page image Brenda Cooper bibliography

    He handed me a long slender rod with a firing pin on the outside. The laser gun felt heavier than I remembered, harder to manage.

Research requirements

antedating 1963
Earliest cite

Roger Zelazny, in Fantastic
Research History
Simon Koppel submitted a 1964 cite in reference to an episode of The Outer Limits.

Last modified 2023-10-12 15:16:20
In the compilation of some entries, HDSF has drawn extensively on corresponding entries in OED.