gun terms, where do they come from?

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Use a word that's too "fancy", like the word purchased...you're just trying to sound smart.

Funny how you assume value judgement.

There are people on this earth (I kid you not) who can discuss something without assigning a value judgement.

Yes, someone using purchase in written form and buy in spoken word is stilting their language. There's nothing wrong with it, since writing is a bit more of a deliberate act, but it is true.
 
I like booger hook and bang switch because that's what the drill sergeants would use and they were hilarious...in their own special mean way.
 
Slang evolves just like its parent language, frequently right alongside.

Novelist Ramond Chandler (think Bogart as Phil Marlowe in The Big Sleep) being British, didn't know any American slang so he invented his own.

What frosts MY coconuts is the patois used in most local sportscasts :fire:, but that's another post.

Use what you're comfortable with, ask if you don't understand something.

ed

P.S.

The term "trunk" comes from the fact that early automobiles literally had a trunk attached neat the back bumper. A similiar space on stagecoaches was refered to as the "boot", a term out British cousins still use for the storage space at the rear of an auto.

ed
 
Clips and magazines are two different things.

Thank you Warp, man that bugs the hell outta me when all you hear is clips this and clip that, definitely a pet peeve of mine.

It's a magazine!
 
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Index: "Something that serves to guide, point out, or otherwise facilitate reference"

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/index

AKA why it is called a pointer finger as well as index finger. I don't think "indexing" is such a stretch. It makes short work of a describing how to keep your finger out of the trigger guard.

The "purchase" the OP was asking is not the "purchase" versus "buy" but I think that was acknowledged. In any case, I don't think you are a wise guy, arm-chair commando, or language nerd to use either term in either instance. I like "purchase" though because when describing how good of a grip you can get on a grip, one grip being better because the texture is more grippy, I'll be like, get a grip! Use better words!

Much better to say "Can obtain much better purchase on this grip due to the more textured material."
 
Here's another one..."indexing". Yes I get what it means. But could it be said any more? "This right here...gives you a place to index your finger".
It sounds like you might have the meaning, or intent, confused in the usage...at least, as you have used it above.

Index isn't used in place of the verb to place...as in "gives you a place to put your finger.

To index refers to the tactile feedback you receive when correctly locating the finger on the gun
 
It sounds like you might have the meaning, or intent, confused in the usage...at least, as you have used it above.

Index isn't used in place of the verb to place...as in "gives you a place to put your finger.

To index refers to the tactile feedback you receive when correctly locating the finger on the gun

This exactly. For example, on my pistols I index my finger along the edge of the frame. I can feel that my finger is where I want it by feeling the rounded edge (Glocks) at the bottom/side of the frame.

On my AR I index my finger with the bottom edge of the mag release.

Having something to index makes it repeatable and consistent. I also have indexing points for acquiring the same cheek weld and sight alignment on rifles
 
Having something to index makes it repeatable and consistent. I also have indexing points for acquiring the same cheek weld and sight alignment on rifles

Good point. Kind of like the little bump on your "F" and "J" keys.
 
Well what gets me is when I'm told I have a revolver and not a pistol. A revolver is a pistol just as much as my 1911. Also is it a weapon or a gun? I vividly remember an army Sargent chewing my butt out in ROTC when I called my M1 a gun. Remember "this is my weapon this is my gun. This is for killing, this is for fun. Pointing at your rifle and then the nether regions. :)
 
There's the right way, the wrong way, and the Army way.

I still have no clue why they don't want you to call your gun a gun.

And I do not consider a revolver to be a pistol...but I would never call anybody on that.
 
Well what gets me is when I'm told I have a revolver and not a pistol. A revolver is a pistol just as much as my 1911.
While technically true, it goes back to the original words used for the different types of handguns.

Revolver is a contracted form of Revolving pistol.

Pistol is the contracted form of Semi-automatic pistol. Calling it an automatic would be confusing, because we use that term as a contracted form of Full/Fully Automatic or Select Fire gun. Calling is a semi-auto was popular for a time, but is still long, plus it is a term that is more commonly used for rifles.

It is the same as using the designation of AK-47, which is commonly used in place of Semi-Automatic clone/version/modification of the AK-47
 
Also is it a weapon or a gun?
I nearly never call a gun/firearm a weapon. To me, until it's used as a weapon, its a firearm or gun. I have not had to use my guns as a weapon (nothing has ever attacked me, but I have hunted), so to me, they're just firearms. It also seems to take a lot of the evil out of guns when I talk to someone who's not pro-gun or slightly anti if I refer to it as a firearm. It seems that if you run around calling it a weapon, and people think it's purely for attacks.

Sometimes you can really change the tone of an argument or conversation just by using a slightly different, albeit correct, term. Firearm sounds much nicer than weapon, no?
 
All guns are weapons but not all weapons are guns. The intent or use of a gun does not determine whether it is a weapon, it is one inherently.

However, it is the connotation associated with "weapon" that leads many to see anything classified as one as a bad thing.
 
All guns are weapons but not all weapons are guns. The intent or use of a gun does not determine whether it is a weapon, it is one inherently.

However, it is the connotation associated with "weapon" that leads many to see anything classified as one as a bad thing.

Every gun is a weapon as much as every knife is a weapon.

Is my butter knife a weapon?
 
Good point about weapon vs firearm. I come to guns through the military not hunting. It would be a disservice for me to turn off any new gun people by calling a firearm a weapon.

All squares are rectangles and what not...
 
Gun dorks like to say "press" a lot.

Press the trigger. Front sight press. Press check.
 
Gun dorks like to say "press" a lot.

Press the trigger. Front sight press. Press check.
When referring to trigger management:
1. Press is a more accurate term and less prone to misinterpretation than Pull or Squeeze. The first causes folks to not move the trigger straight back, the second causes folks to tighten the whole hand...both lead to poor shot placement. It is a training solution.
2. Front Sight, Press describes the process and is related to the above.

Press Check was the term coined to describe the preferred chamber check method, back in the 60's, for the 1911. It is used incorrectly when used to describe other methods
 
Raymond Chandler was born in Chicago and raised in Nebraska until he was twelve, when his family moved to London. Seven years later, he became a British subject. Although he moved back to San Franciso when he was twenty-four, he remained a British subject until well over sixty, at which time he reclaimed his American citizenship.

Looks like we're BOTH right.

ed
 
Yeah, he was sorta British. It never occurred to me that he over 50 years old when The Big Sleep was published.
 
While technically true, it goes back to the original words used for the different types of handguns.

Revolver is a contracted form of Revolving pistol.

Pistol is the contracted form of Semi-automatic pistol.

I had always thought the term "revolver" referred to handgun with a revolving cylinder and a "pistol" referred to a semi-auto handgun.

A check of Wikapedia, and you can take that with a grain of salt, says a pistol is a subset of handguns with the chamber integral with the barrel. This would include semi-autos, single shot, and revolving pepper box.

Wikapedia says a revolver is a single barrel handgun with a rotating cylinder of chambers separate from the barrel.

In this case, Wikapedia supports what i had believed for more than 30 years, although covering a wider scope.

Check here.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pistol

But sometimes, there is not a distinction. The British do not. See here.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Handgun
 
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