Ok, stupid question of the day - - - >

[Tim Currie]

Alright I got a real dumb one. I've always kinda wondered when I saw it but never could ask.

What does carbine mean?

 

[KMKeller]

Carbine typically applies to a shortened, lightened version of a rifle. I believe it came into play to describe the smaller version of a rifle designed for cavalry use in the days of old.

 

[QuarterBoreGunner]

David Marshall 'Carbine' Williams-

http://ncmuseumofhistory.org/prss_rl31.htm

Helped develop the M1 carbine, most of the design he came up with while in prison in the 1920s.


And don't quote me but I believe the etomology of 'carbine' is Italian but I can't find anything to back me up on this.

 

[Chipperman]

FWIW, I've heard that he actually had very little to do with the M1 carbine's development. Saw it on one of the History Channel Gun Docs.

Don't know if it's true.

 

[vanfunk]

Hmmm. Good one.

From the Italian...."Carabinieri"... light foot soldier/Police-type folks...
Carabinieri.....Carbine...
maybe?

I've always wondered about this, too.

Now that I think about it, what's "horse" in Italian? "Cavalle"?

'V" is often vulgarized to "B" in the vernacular.

Cavalle....to....Carballe....add the suffix "ino" for "little"...

Carbino....to...."Carbine" i.e. a short rifle for mounted troops.

Am I on to something here?

Where are the lexicographers when you need one?:banghead:

vanfunk

 

[mons meg]

The language nerd that lives in my head found this:

[French carabine, from Old French carabin, soldier armed with a musket, perhaps from escarrabin, gravedigger, from scarabee, dung beetle. See scarab.]

Source: The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition


and...


A short, light musket or rifle, esp. one used by mounted soldiers or cavalry.

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary

So now you know, and knowing's half the battle!

 

[QuarterBoreGunner]

Behold the power of THR.

 

[craigz]

Actually, it's more complicated than that. There is also something called a "short rifle" that is distinctly different from a carbine. According to Mike Venturino, who wrote the book on such things:

Back in the late 1800s when Winchester was turning out lever guns by the hundreds of thousands, it assigned specific configurations to the terms “carbine†and “short rifleâ€.

Simply stated, a carbine had a wide but slightly curved buttplate, a light round barrel secured by one or two barrel bands, and its own peculiar type of ladder type rear sight.

Conversely, a short rifle was fitted with a crescent steel buttplate, a steel forearm cap instead of barrel band(s), and heavier barrels (compared to carbines) that could be either round or octagon in shape. Also, a short rifle had standard rifle-type, buckhorn sights with which elevation was adjusted by a notched slider.

 

[Jim K]

Well, the word "carbine", meaning a short rifle or musket, was around a long time before the Winchester company ever existed. And the Italian "carabinieri" means "people who carry carbines", so the weapon gives the name to the troops, not the reverse.

Up to the adoption of the U.S. M1 carbine, a carbine was a short rifle or musket, made for the cavalry, using the same cartridge (sometimes of a reduced charge), as the long gun carried by the infantry. The .30 M1 carbine was an exception, since its cartridge was not interchangeable with the .30 cartridge used in the Model 1903 and M1 rifles.

But we are now back, with the M4 carbine, to a carbine that uses the same 5.56mm ammuntion as the M16 rifle.

Jim

 

[Matthew_Q]

Well, 'carbine' is a pretty generic term now...


Take any rifle, whack it off to a shorter barrel length, and you can have a 'carbine'.

 

[Redlg155]

Take any rifle, whack it off to a shorter barrel length, and you can have a 'carbine'.

Or mount a LER scope on it and call it a "Scout Rifle". '

Good Shooting
Red

 

[BigG]

Next you'll be asking is it carbean or carbyne.

 

[Jeff Timm]

In the immortal words of Cooper, "A long arm intended to be carried a lot, and shot a little."

Jeff
Who figgers it works for me.

 

[telewinz]

William's developed the short stroke gas-piston system Winchester did the rest.