Raygun

Early science fiction often described or depicted raygun beams making bright light and loud noise like lightning or large electric arcs.

According to The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction,[3] the word "ray gun" was first used by Victor Rousseau in 1917, in a passage from The Messiah of the Cylinder:[4] All is not going well, Arnold: the ray-rods are emptying fast, and our attack upon the lower level of the wing has failed.

[6] The term "ray gun" had already become cliché by the 1940s, in part due to association with the comic strips (and later film serials) Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon.

For instance, characters of the Lost in Space TV series (1965–1968) and of the Star Trek pilot episode "The Cage" (1964) carried handheld laser weapons.

[2] This can be compared with real-type firearms as commonly depicted by action movies, as tending infallibly to hit whatever they are aimed at (when wielded by the heroes) and seldom depleting their ammunition.