The Origins of Gun Terms Part II

 This is the second part of an article I posted in 2020 on The Origins of Gun Terms.

Gun

I can't believe I forgot to include this one in the original post, but here we go. The word comes direct from Old Norse, the word gunn simply meant war. The second 'n' was dropped from the spelling by the English and then applied to what became the main tool of war.

Creedmoor: 

You have probably heard of the 6.5mm Creedmoor cartridge or perhaps a Creedmoor rifle, but do you know where the name came from?

Creedmoor was a shooting range in the New York City borough of Queens. In coordination with the NRA, the State of New York purchased the 70-acre farm from a man with the last name of Creed, and the land was on a moor, another word for rolling grass land that is uncultivated. Thus the name of the shooting range became The Creedmoor. The shooting range is long gone, replaced, by of all things, a mental hospital. They did name the street out front Winchester Ave, so that's something.

Bisley: 

Bisley is another name often used in firearms to describe a type of single action revolver. Both Colt & Ruger have made Bisley style revolvers that feature a different grip, hammer and trigger than the standard models. 

The name comes from the UK's largest shooting sports complex in Bisley, just outside of Surrey England.

Cavalry: 

The Cavalry was traditionally the horse mounted soldiers, when tanks replaced soldiers, tanks became the calvary. The name actually has nothing to do with the horse or tank. The name comes from the Latin "Cavalria", which means skull (or bald). OK so why isn't that name used for the skull in medical dictionaries instead of the older Greek word "Kraniou topos" (Cranium), who knows. The name became used after the crucifixion of Jesus, the hill he was crucified on was known as Cavalria, because it was a round bald hill. I would take a guess that it was probably the Knights Templar who first used the word for their horse mounted troops during the Crusades.

Uzi:

An Uzi, if you didn't know is a 9mm submachine gun designed for the Israeli military. The name comes from name the designer, Uziel Gal. 

Some will use the word "Uzi" to describe any machine pistol, kind of like using the word "Band-aid" for an adhesive bandage. 

Ranger 

The word ranger is obviously a derivation of the word range, which comes from old French, used since the 1200s, meaning a row or line of trees. Ranger has been used to describe an officer of the forest in England since at least the 15th century. It was also used as a term for a group of soldiers in France. Texas formed their law enforcement rangers in 1835, while the U.S. Army formed their elite division of soldiers in 1941. 

Quigley

The term for a sniper taking out two tangos (targets) with one shot is known as a Quigley, this comes from a scene in the 1990 film Quigley Down Under, starring Tom Selleck. In the scene he kills two of his enemies with one shot from his Sharp's rifle

Sling

The word sling originated with Old Norse or Old German as a word to describe a weapon made of leather that would hold a rock. The literal translation was to swing back and forth or to wind or twist. It also was applied to a leather strap used to lift and carry objects which is where we get the modern definition.

Picatinny Rail

Also known as the "1913 rail" or the "MIL-STD 1913 rail", the name comes from the Picatinny Arsenal in New Jersey who had a hand in designing it. It was designed after the Weaver rail and became a Military spec product in 1995

Tactical

Tactical comes from the word tactic, which means a specific action design to achieve a specific goal.

The word originated with the Ancient Greek word taktikos, which came from the earlier Greek word tasso which meant to set up in order, appoint or put in station.

Roscoe

No one has definitively provided proof of the original source of the slang Roscoe for a carry gun. Could be one of many writers: Damon Runyon, Dashiel Hammett or Robert Leslie Bellum. Either way it was more popular in pulp fiction than real life.

Mohaska

I had never actually heard this term until I saw the Brian DePalma movie Untouchables. The word comes from the name of the Chief of the Ioway Indian tribe, it meant "White Cloud or White Thunder". Some other tribes used the word to describe a man's power, particularly their penis.

In the early part of the 20th Century, it began to be used as slang for a gun which kind of makes sense since the early guns used black powder which produced white smoke.

gun — Wordorigins.org

sling | Etymology of sling by etymonline