This article is written in American English, which has its own spelling conventions (color, defense, traveled) and some terms that are used in it may be different or absent from other varieties of English. According to the relevant style guide, this should not be changed without broad consensus. |
This level-4 vital article is rated B-class on Wikipedia's content assessment scale. It is of interest to the following WikiProjects: | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
The word "Rifle"
editThe article states: "The word "rifle" originally referred to the grooving, and a rifle was called a "rifled gun.""
What an odd statement. If the word "rifle" no longer refers to the spiral grooving, what then does it refer to nowadays? I had always believed that noun "rifle" is derived from the verb "rifle," and that both are current usages. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.180.68.65 (talk) 00:05, 21 October 2012 (UTC)
I read that "rifle" is derived from German "Riffel" = groove". --FK1954 (talk) 10:05, 17 August 2024 (UTC)
The word "Assault"
editI wanted to bring to the table a request to remove the term "Assault Rifle" from the pages that have it. This term means nothing it is a media buzzword and doesn't belong in the articles IMHO. In the cases I refer to are semi, burst and auto fire rifles. Also I have fixed a few references to "Clips" when the contributor meant "Magazines". But I have in the past replaced "Assault" with "semi, burst, or auto fire" and have seen it edited to "Assault". What gives?Bjbeardse (talk) 23:49, 17 October 2017 (UTC)
- "Assault rifle" is a genuine military term for a specific type of rifle such as the M16 and AK-47. "Assault weapon" is the dubious political and media term for semi-automatic military-style rifles that is often conflated with "assault rifle". As long as "assault rifle" is used in the correct context here, it's fine. - BilCat (talk) 03:59, 18 October 2017 (UTC)
- The term 'assault rifle' was derived from the late-WW II German 'Sturmgewehr', the StG 44. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 95.149.173.52 (talk) 15:17, 27 December 2017 (UTC)
Smooth Bored Shotguns called Rifles
editAs written, this piece says, "rifle is now often used for any long-shaped handheld ranged weapon designed for well-aimed discharge activated by a trigger." But no source is given there. It seems that you would include smooth bored shotguns with this definition. This claim seems doubtful to me. (TerryKave (talk) 18:02, 4 December 2023 (UTC))
This piece says, "In many works of fiction a rifle refers to any weapon that has a stock and is shouldered before firing, even if the weapon is not rifled or does not fire solid projectiles (e.g. a "laser rifle")." Yet no source is provided for this claim. Perhaps somebody has done a survey of popular writings / fiction works, and come up with percent as to out of a million works which use the term "rifle," some percent use the term as claimed. (TerryKave (talk) 18:08, 4 December 2023 (UTC))