service revolver == sidearm/service weapon

[Jonathan Lighter]

For many years my worthless impression has been that "revolver" is often
used when "pistol" is correct.

OED has "service revolver" from Hemingway in 1926. Presumably he meant an
actual revolver.

JL


On Thu, Oct 28, 2010 at 2:39 AM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: service revolver == sidearm/service weapon
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On Wed, Oct 27, 2010 at 10:46 PM, Victor Steinbok <aardvark66 at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> > It's the same kind of
> > ... "_paraplegic_" being replaced by
> > "quadriplegic" in situations where the latter term does not offer a
> > correct description of the condition.
>
> It goes without saying that no two people experience the same reality.
> Nevertheless, FWIW, IME, _quadriplegic_ is close to extinct in casual
> speech or writing and a - to me, absolutely *astounding* - number of
> speakers of all kinds in all walks of life, both on TV and in the
> wild, say "parap[@]legic," to the extent that plain "paraplegic" is
> beginning to sound almost pedantic, to my ear.
>
> -Wilson
>
>
>
> --
> -Wilson
> –––
> All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"––a strange complaint to
> come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
> –Mark Twain
>
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>



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