Quote Originally Posted by xXRaineXx View Post
Cannon is referred to as "大砲" or "taihou", the same Kanji used for gun is used here, but "-砲" or "-hou" is only a suffix, it cannot be used by itself to refer to a cannon. "大" or "tai/dai" means "large/big", which refers to heavy guns, cannons/artillery if used together with "-砲".
Except that 砲 is not strictly a suffix, and can start words just fine. 砲兵 being "artillery forces" and not "gun forces," unless my Korean knowledge and Google confirmation are both misleading me here. So while it's safe to say that 砲 means "something that shoots things," it's not accurate to say that it's only a suffix or that it can only mean cannon/artillery if combined with 大.