Muzzle Brake? Muzzle Break?

[PaladinVC]

This is a silly question, and I thought the archives would answer it for me, but here I am. Can someone tell me, once and for all, whether that doohicky on the end of the barrel is a muzzle "brake" or a muzzle "break"?

I've seen both used on websites, advertisements and articles and I can't decide which it should be. If you could tell me which is correct and some kind of etymological explanation for it, it would help me keep it straight.

I had the same problem with "sight" and "site", but that one was easy to figure out.

Thanks in advance.

 

[foghornl]

"Brake" is a device attached to reduce recoil, etc "Brakes" on a car

"Break" indicates something is out of order... broken, fractured, etc

 

[PaladinVC]

Thank you. I figured it was either "brake" to reduce, or "break" because it takes the form of holes, and thus an interruption of the barrel. Brake it is.

 

[Jim K]

Just remember that you "brake" your car when you see a red light. If you don't stop, you may "break" your car.

Another often mis-spelled term is "breech" (often pronounced "britch"). The rear end of a gun or a barrel is the breech, which means (literally) the rear end; "breeches" cover your rear end. "Breach" means a break, like a breach in the wall or a breach in a defense. So unless your gun barrel has a "breach", in which case you have real problems, the term is "breech." (In parts of Appalachia, the word is also a verb meaning to open the breech of a gun to reload; you hear, "I missed the deer and he got away before I could breech (or "britch") my gun.")

Jim

 

[JohnKSa]

Oh goody! A spelling thread!



Here are some common gun-related spelling mistakes.

It's aperture sights, not aperature sites. Oh, and by the way, aperture or peep sights are iron sights, but they are not OPEN sights.

handgun, not hangun

misfire, not missfire

Partridge is the family or the bird--if you're talking about sights, its patridge sights.

The extractor pulls the round from the chamber, the ejector kicks the round loose from the extractor and out of the ejection port.

It's the Second Amendment, not the Second Ammendment.

Men on horses = cavalry, men on crosses = calvary.

Ordnance is guns and ammo, ordinance is a law or statute.

Beretta, not Berretta, Baretta, or Berreta

Guns don't have breaches unless something is coming apart--that part of the gun is called the BREECH.

Varmint is spelled varmint--REALLY--with an 'n'.

Shotgun bores are measured in Gauge, not Guage.

Brakes have already been mentioned--but it's worth pointing out that they go on muzzles, not muzzels.

Ok, I feel better now...

 

[bobs1066]

I don't have my Bierce here with me, but I recall a story whose last line depended on the difference between a breach of the peace and a piece of the breech.

 

[PowderBurn]

Well done, John. Your work should be posted in the THR Library and be required reading for noobs (or newbs, or nubes???)

 

[torpid]

Where do we stand on reticle/reticule ?


.

 

[JohnKSa]

reticle is what's in the scope--reticule is a handbag or purse.

 

[Tory]

Really?

"Partridge is the family or the bird--if you're talking about sights, its patridge sights."

And all this time I thought it was Patridge - named for the inventor.

 

[Henry Bowman]

Early in my career, I dictated a description of a mechanical device. It was a winch that you could keep in your trunk. If necessary, you could take it out and mount the winch on your bumper and you could use the winch to pull your car out of a ditch if it got stuck. My secretary typed it as "wench" instead of "winch." It made for an interesting read that way.

 

[dleong]

And let's no forget the ubiquitous magazine vs. clip issue.


DL

 

[Sleeping Dog]

As long as we're working on terminology -

What's the difference between an armory and an arsenal?

They're both just big rooms full of guns, right?

Regards.

 

[Mal H]

Completely different things, Sleeping dog. An 'armory' is a building or location to store arms. 'Arsenal' is a London football club (even though they don't know what football really is.)



Nah, actually they both mean the same thing, but armory is used more often than arsenal in the US.

 

[Tory]

Are you sure about that?

"Nah, actually they both mean the same thing, but armory is used more often than arsenal in the US."

I understood the distinction to be as follows:

ARMORY: A place where weapons are stored.

ARSENAL: A place where weapons are MADE.

The M-1 Garand was designed and built at the Springfield ARSENAL. You can find them stored in various armories.

arsenal >noun a store of weapons and ammunition.
-ORIGIN French, or obsolete Italian arzanale, from an Arabic phrase meaning 'house of industry'.

 

[Malamute]

I believe tory is correct regarding armoy and arsenal. Arsenal is not properly used today., though it is commonly accepted in it's current use for some reason.

Another common mis-use is decimate (not strictly gun related). Decimate in it's original form is to reduce by ONE TENTH, period. NOT mass destruction.

In Roman military history, there were times when punishment or disciplin was considered necessary, and the offending ranks were decimated, meaning exactly one tenth, or one in ten soldiers were put to the sword.

 

[Mal H]

No, they are the same thing. I only used one of the definitions for both. Both can be a place to store arms, and both can be a place to manufacture arms.

ARSENAL: A place where weapons are MADE.
...
arsenal >noun a store of weapons and ammunition.

 

[M109A6 Paladin]

True, my Webster's says an armory is a place where they are also manufactured.

JohnKSa: Loved your bit on the definitions. Fun to read. I get sticky on spelling and misuse of words in conversations (sometimes) too. Other times I just have to overlook it and not stress out too much.

 

[Jim K]

Tory has the common U.S. usage of Armory and Arsenal reversed, and it is Springfield Armory, not Arsenal. There were two national Armories set up to make weapons for the infant U.S., Springfield, MA and Harpers Ferry, VA. The latter was closed by enemies of the U.S., the Confederate States Army. The former was closed by other enemies of the U.S., liberal politicians.

Jim

 

[Model520Fan]

Early in my career, I dictated a description of a mechanical device. It was a winch that you could keep in your trunk. If necessary, you could take it out and mount the winch on your bumper and you could use the winch to pull your car out of a ditch if it got stuck.

I reckon you could call it that, but I always thought if it came out of your trunk (or the back of your pickup), it was a come-along.

 

[Vern Humphrey]

As Sergeant Dophit once remarked to me, "In the fragmentation order, I said all ammonition barriers will carry aluminous tape for the otermatic rifles."

 

[Elmer Snerd]

Muzzle brake.

Muzzle break.

 

[JohnKSa]

And all this time I thought it was Patridge - named for the inventor.

Correct, of course.

Interesting question to go along with this. How does one go about having a "something" that is named after a person become a general term that no longer requires capitalization. It happens a lot, but when/how does it become official?

Examples:
curie
ohm
gauss & degauss
newton
joule

 

[Mal H]

Good question, and I don't know the answer. Maybe it has to do with an unwritten rule concerning real things vs. abstract things or perhaps nouns vs adjectives. All the items you listed are units of measurement, i.e., an abstract item, how much of something as opposed to the something itself.

It's difficult to come up with items named for people where the name isn't an adjective, e.g., Achilles tendon, Humbolt current, Patridge sight, etc., the names are adjectives. I couldn't come up with a noun named for a (famous) person (i.e., not john, for example) which is a compound term and is not capitalized. But there are several single words which are nouns and are not capitalized - mackintosh, macadam, chesterfield, etc.

 

[Tory]

Check the post

"Tory has the common U.S. usage of Armory and Arsenal reversed"

Then so does the dictionary, the definition from which I included in my post.