Magazine vs Clip

[RTR_RTR]

Quick q, just out of curiosity (I swear I wasn't berated recently for saying clip )

Where did the term "clip" originate, and from where does the animosity toward the term arise? People "in the loop," seem very adamant upon correcting/impressing upon people the correct term.

TYIA

 

[LHRGunslinger]

 

[HBrebel]

same difference as record player/turntable, bike/motorbike/motorcycle. or gun/firearm/sidearm. or magazine/magazine

 

[BleysAhrens]

That's a great example. I think we should send that to all the news agencies so I can stop cringing every time they talk about banning high cap "clips"...come to think about it, I would not stop cringing...

 

[sniper5]

HBrebel:

In that case how would you like to buy 100 M1A clips for $10 each? Would be a bargain, right?

 

[john1911]

People "in the loop," seem very adamant upon correcting/impressing upon people the correct term.

The majority who are "adamant" about correcting others on this issue are full of themselves. They try to impress others with their "extensive" gun knowledge, which often amounts to the usage of magazine v. clips.

 

[General Geoff]

same difference as record player/turntable, bike/motorbike/motorcycle. or gun/firearm/sidearm. or magazine/magazine

Not exactly. Magazines are not the same things as clips. It would be like calling your liver a pancreas, or calling a wheel, a tire. They are distinctly different objects.

 

[usmcgrunt]

I think HOLLYWeirD coined the term "clip" as to where real people know they are magazines! Then again John1911's comment about some are full of themselves is pretty much accurate as well!

Grunt Out!

 

[browneu]

The majority who are "adamant" about correcting others on this issue are full of themselves. They try to impress others with their "extensive" gun knowledge, which often amounts to the usage of magazine v. clips.

I think it's more of a matter of education than trying to impress someone.

I don't drink coffee and stopped at Starbucks the other day to order a medium hot chocolate. Immediately the attendant corrected me stating I wanted a vente, grande, or whatever it's called. They weren't trying to impress me just educate me on their drink sizes.

 

[BleysAhrens]

It's like calling an SUV a truck... I'm not full of myself, but I do feel you should be educated on the proper terminology. If I was loading my M9, and asked the armorer for a clip, I would get bullets on a stripper clip for loading an AR15 mag.. Call it what you wish, but you would look less than a subject mater expert.

 

[kingpin008]

I think it's more of a matter of education than trying to impress someone.

Exactly.

Words mean things, and sometimes people need correcting when they use the wrong ones. That doesn't giver the correcter the right to be a jerk about it, though.

 

[NavyLCDR]

Funny thing is... the NRA and Merriam Webster state that clip and magazine mean the same thing.

http://www.nraila.org/issues/firearmsglossary/

CLIP
A device for holding a group of cartridges. Semantic wars have been fought over the word, with some insisting it is not a synonym for "detachable magazine." For 80 years, however, it has been so used by manufacturers and the military. There is no argument that it can also mean a separate device for holding and transferring a group of cartridges to a fixed or detachable magazine or as a device inserted with cartridges into the mechanism of a firearm becoming, in effect, part of that mechanism.

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/clip

clip
noun
Definition of CLIP
2 : a device to hold cartridges for charging the magazines of some rifles; also : a magazine from which ammunition is fed into the chamber of a firearm

Remington offers these magazine clips for sale:
http://www.remington.com/products/accessories/gun-parts/magazine-clips/model-504-magazine-clip.aspx

http://www.remington.com/products/accessories/gun-parts/magazine-clips/model-597-magazine-clip.aspx

http://www.remington.com/products/a...gazine-clips/model-700-bdl-magazine-clip.aspx

Respectfully, there are some pretty well recognized experts in firearms and the English language that contend that a clip can also be a magazine, as well as a magazine charging device - basically anything that holds a group of cartridges together.

 

[nswtex]

lol at people full of themselves thing. This is the internet, if we cant be full of ourselves here where else can we? But I thought that the last time we discussed this topic we ended up agreeing to disagree. Yes they are different things but the terminology may have been blurred as far back as the world wars where young boys shoved 'clips' into their weapons as they fought for their lives, subsequently calling everything that held/fed ammunition into boomsticks a 'clip'.

And last I checked, I haven't met anyone willing to correct grandpa to his using the word clip as he showed me how to use my first pistol.

 

[General Geoff]

Funny thing is... the NRA and Merriam Webster state that clip and magazine mean the same thing.

Authorities repeating a falsehood does not make it true.

Yes they are different things but the terminology may have been blurred as far back as the world wars where young boys shoved 'clips' into their weapons as they fought for their lives, subsequently calling everything that held/fed ammunition into boomsticks a 'clip'.

in the World Wars, young boys did shove clips into their weapons. The 1903 Springfield and M1 Garand both used clips to reload their internal magazines.

 

[RTR_RTR]

Thanks for the info - I wasn't aware of a distinct firearm-related object termed a clip.

 

[NavyLCDR]

Authorities repeating a falsehood does not make it true.

Yet a bunch of anonymous people on the internet does.

 

[nswtex]

Right, so why do I get flamed for saying it and reporters make people cringe when they say it but I have never seen any of the outspoken professionals correct these old vets saying it.

Is a buck a U.S. dollar or somethin thats about to be jerky

 

[General Geoff]

Respectfully, there are some pretty well recognized experts in firearms and the English language that contend that a clip can also be a magazine, as well as a magazine charging device - basically anything that holds a group of cartridges together.

The purpose of language is to convey thoughts accurately. Using clip as a synonym for magazine diminishes this purpose, because in many instances the usage of clip could easily be taken for either a clip in the more technical sense, or a magazine, in context. Do you want the guy at the gun shop to hand you a bag of 5.56mm clips, when you actually wanted magazines?

Yet a bunch of anonymous people on the internet does.

My purpose is to avoid ambiguity of terms, not to be correct.

 

[IndispensableDestiny]

A magazine was originally where powder and later loaded ammo was kept.

 

[yeti]

Yet a bunch of anonymous people on the internet does.

Only the one that agree with me... all the rest of them are always wrong even if they happen to be right.

 

[NavyLCDR]

Do you want the guy at the gun shop to hand you a bag of 5.56mm clips, when you actually wanted magazines?

It wouldn't matter to me one bit. I would then tell him, "I'm sorry, obviously my mistake. I would like a bag full of 30 round detachable box magazines, please."

As stated above.... THIS is a REAL magazine:
http://www.preservationsociety.org/HalseyMap/Flash/window.asp?HMID=17

 

[General Geoff]

A magazine was originally where powder and later loaded ammo was kept.

It still means that. The term magazine was derived from the French word magasin, which comes from the Italian word magazzino, which means warehouse or store.

It wouldn't matter to me one bit. I would then tell him, "I'm sorry, obviously my mistake. I would like a bag full of 30 round detachable box magazines, please."

The only reason to use "clip" instead of "magazine" is as a shorter, easier-to-say word, and in that case, the abbreviation "mag" is a better alternative, IMO.

 

[mljdeckard]

I don't care if gun people call it what they want. But I jump all over ANTI-gun people when THEY use terminology they don't understand. Like, clip, high-powered, point-blank, assault, automatic, long-range, etc.

I just think that WE need to know what the heck we are talking about to be able to point out when THEY are spewing gibberish.

 

[General Geoff]

Well-said, mljdeckard.

 

[NavyLCDR]

Unfortunately, they would have expert opinion backing that clip is one proper term for a device which holds a group of cartridges together for the purpose of feeding those cartridges into the chamber of a firearm.

Now, "Hi capacity clip", now we enter into the realm of gibberish!