fusee

Etymology 1

From French fusil. Doublet of fusil.

noun

1. A light musket or firelock.
   He had not been many days at the chateau, when he perceived, with surprize and consternation, that his steps were continually watched by two servants armed with fusees. 1790, Helen Maria Williams, Letters Written in France, Broadview, published 2002, page 123
   Breakfast being over, my father took me into his study, where, after fervently recommending me to the care of a protecting providence, he gave me a beautiful fusee, which cost him forty guineas, a pair of pistols of exquisite workmanship, and a purse containing fifty guineas in cash and a twenty-five pounds banknote. 1808–10, William Hickey, Memoirs of a Georgian Rake, Folio Society 1995, p. 75

Etymology 2

From French fusée, ultimately from Latin fūsus (“spindle”).

noun

1. A conical, grooved pulley in early clocks, antique watches, and possibly all non-electronic marine chronometers.
   To day when we attended the winding up of the watches the fusee of Mr Arnolds would not turn round and after several unsuccessfull tryals we were obliged to let it go down […] . 1773, James Cook, The Journals, Second Voyage, 8 August
2. A large friction match.
   A comfortable hammock on a warm afternoon would appeal to his indolent tastes, and then, when he was getting drowsy, a lighted fusee thrown into the nest would bring the wasps out in an indignant mass, and they would soon find a ‘home away from home’ on Waldo's fat body. 1914, "Saki", ‘The Dreamer’, Beasts and Superbeasts, Penguin 2000 (Complete Short Stories), page 322
3. A fuse for an explosive.
4. (US) A colored flare used as a warning on the railroad.

Etymology 3

fuse + -ee.

noun

1. One who, or that which, fuses or is fused; an individual component of a fusion.
   This is the fusion of two people who are neurally and biologically (and so, psychologically) identical. Setting aside issues about intensional content, when these differ, such a fusion would clearly produce someone who is exactly like what either of the fusees would have been like had the fusion not occurred. 2002, Philosophical Topics, volume 30, number 1, page 276