A useful dictionary?

[pax]

Hey Guys ~

It's happened again. I was writing something and went to use the dictionary, and the term I was looking for wasn't there.

Not the first time it's happened, either. Lots of times I'll go to look up a gun-related word -- for instance, how do you spell "fore end"? Like that? Or like this: "forend"? -- and the word either won't be in the dictionary, or the meaning I'm looking for won't be there.

Does anyone here have a recommendation for a good regular dictionary which includes firearms terms?

pax

 

[Larry Ashcraft]

The Blue Book of Gun Values has a pretty useful glossary.

 

[Henry Bowman]

My unabridged does not include the term, leading me to believe that it is two words. This is supprted by the fact that it includes the term "fore edge" (the front outer edge of a book, opposite the bound edge) written as two words.

 

[ArfinGreebly]

Gun Fore-End

The McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific and Technical Terms lists this word; they have it hyphenated.

See answers.com here, and also their link to the Sci/Tech Dictionary.

And, of course, Amazon has it.

 

[mp510]

The NRA produces a sheet that covers a lot of terminology.

 

[Mal H]

I checked all of my dictionaries (and I have quite a few) and none of them had fore-end except, of course, my Oxford English Dictionary. I might just have to get a copy of the McGraw-Hill DSTT of which Arfin spoke.

From the OED:

fore-end (ME)
...
b. The fore-part of the stock of a gun (1881).
...
(several other definitions were included)

 

[Henry Bowman]

Pax, whether you hypenate it or make it two works, your reader is not likely to say "Hey, that's spelled wrong" as long as you are consistent in your spelling.