Nomenclature Question - Revolver vs. Pistol

B

BigMikey76

New member
Why has the term "pistol" come to refer specifically to semi-automatic handguns?

I know the term predates the modern semi-auto. In fact, it predates revolvers, going back to the earliest handguns and showing up in multiple languages, such as the German "Pistole," "pistolet," in French, and "Pistola" in both Italian and Spanish.

It carried into the days of the revolver, as evidenced by Wild Bill Hickock's unofficial title "The Prince of Pistoleers."

At what point, then, did "pistol" stop being a general term and become specifically associated with modern semi-autos?
 
I tend to agree, Turtlehead, but I have seen many people who make that distinction, including the guy who taught my CCW class. It was actually part of the "definitions" section in the outline he passed out.
 
It's just one of those things like "suppressor" vs "silencer" that make the Keyboard Kommando feel real Kewl. Jargon rules.
 
All guns are guns, are they not? Why some are called rifles and some are called handguns? They all have riflings and you hands to hold them, right?

Names are created to make things easier. You know what it means, even it doesn't make the perfect sense. It doesn't have to.

-TL
 
There are several word definitions that mean different things to different people due in part to their particular level of interest and education. For instance, clip vs. magazine...the longer and the more time and interest, education invested into the sport of hand gunning, the more likely that they will make the distinction. However, as pointed out by one of my college English instructors, there has to be an authoritative standard, i.e., the dictionary. Having been heavily invested in horses, I always took exception to the name "Thoroughbred" used as a term for anything other than a particular breed of horse. However, as with the terms "clip" and "magazine", the dictionary defines "words in common usage", very different from an expert in a particular field. A Beagle thus becomes a "Thoroughbred" (when they really mean, "purebred"),and a "Magazine" becomes a "clip"...because mouth breathing, knuckle draggers cannot seem to distinguish the difference. So, we may as well reluctantly accept that a revolver and an auto-loader (notice I did not say, "semi-automatic"), are one and the same because the dictionary says so.
 
The term pistol has come to mean a handgun that chambers cartridges in the barrel itself.
So, the modern pistol has much in common with the single shot pistol, once the only kind of handgun.
Both fire bullets from the barrel proper and both are considered pistols.
In betwixt the time of the single shot and the modern auto loader, came the revolver.
So, it naturally was also called a pistol, just cause that's what handguns always were referred to as.
Only after the auto loader came to be has there been controversy of what's what.
Mostly among the more persnickety arms enthusiasts.
It could be worse.
Like when folks call their revolver cylinder a barrel.
Well, it is round, ain't it?
Don't know what they call their barrel.
Something equally as original, no doubt.
A rose by any other name........
 
I tend to give the originator more credence in nomenclature.
When I read an 1852 advertisement for a Colt Revolving Pistol, I have no trouble telling it from the firearm described in the 1900 brochure for the Automatic Colt Pistol; even though both usages will light up the monitors of the Internet Experts.

And I have no complaint with the mouth breathing knuckle draggers of my parents' generation who loaded their guns with "clips" so as to fight the Axis, either.
 
I never used to distinguish a "pistol" as being semi-auto, but it does seemed to have morphed to mean this over the last 10? 15? years or so.
 
Up to roughly the middle of the 20th century, the term "pistol" was used for any gun intended to be fired with one hand - revolvers, single shots, and autoloading (commonly called "automatic") pistols. Then some folks got the bright idea that if a law regulated "pistols", that didn't mean revolvers, and the courts and lawmakers went around and around, eventually settling on the term "handgun" for any kind of "pistol".

Jim
 
And now, Ruger, S&W, & Colt all differentiate between pistols and revolvers
Click to expand...

So does Bud's Gunshop, it seems. I just noticed that when you click on Taurus in the handgun section, it then makes you choose whether you want to look at revolvers or pistols. Even more confusing than that is that for S&W and Ruger, they want you to choose between revolvers or handguns :confused: Really???
 
And in military jargon, a "gun" is a crew served weapon, as a "machine gun," "field gun", anti-aircraft gun," and "anti-tank gun." To have called your M1 rifle a "gun" brought about some severe tongue lashing.

But then, in the Navy, the big guns were referred to as "Rifles" as the 5"-38 caliber rifle.

So, terminology sort of varies with the folks who run in different circles.

Bob Wright
 
I've always wondered if someone came up with handgun that used a detachable mag to feed a revolving DA trigger operated action, would it be called a revolver pistol?


Folks that have nuttin' better to do than worry about what other folks call their possessions, need to get a life.
 
There is a lot of debate about this, but this is my understanding. Originally all handguns were single shots with only 1 chamber. They were known as "pistols". When revolvers came out they were initially known as "revolving pistols" and the name was shortened to simply "revolvers" over time. I've read books defining a pistol as any handgun with a single chamber. This would include single shots, semi-auto's, lever action or even pump action. Any gun with multiple chambers was defined as a revolving pistol or simply revolver.

That is the definition I prefer to use and the one most historically accurate based on my research. But over time the terms have been used interchangeably so much that it is hard to not use pistol to define any handgun anymore.
 
buck460XVR:
I've always wondered if someone came up with handgun that used a detachable mag to feed a revolving DA trigger operated action, would it be called a revolver pistol?
Click to expand...

You just described the Dardick revolver. And, yes, because of its multiple chambers, he called it a revolver. He referred to his cartridges as "trounds."

Bob Wright
 
"...All guns are guns, are they not?..." Nope. Guns are artillery pieces to start.
In Hickok's day, there was nothing but revolvers and single shots. Long before Hickok there were things called horse pistols(big bruisers made to be carried by the horse and not the rider) and pistols not used on horses too. Mind you, a Walker Colt was considered to be a horse pistol.
Now it's pistols or revolver so one can tell what the other one is talking about.
"... 5"-38 caliber rifle..." Boat People! 38 calibre is about the barrel length. And it's a 127mm gun. snicker.
 
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