revolver

Etymology

It is formed from English revolve + -er.^{[2][3][4][5][6]} The verb revolve goes back to Latin revolvō (“to roll back, unroll”), from re- (“back, again”) and volvō (“to roll”).^[3] The OED compares the earlier revolter for its first sense, "a revolutionary".^[2] Etymonline, Barnhart and Klein say the gun was so named by its American inventor, Samuel Colt.^[3][4][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

A revolutionary: 1698, in Thomas D'Urfey's Campaigners, a rare sense now obsolete.^[2] The Shorter Oxford dates the word to the mid-16th century, in the obsolete sense of a person who considers or meditates on something.^[6]

Semantic evolution

From the early 18th century the word was used of a person who goes in turn from one place or state to another, then from 1750 of a thing that revolves, especially in a machine;^[2][7] the sun and planets were called revolvers from 1751.^[2] The firearm sense is the one that lasted.^[2] Barnhart and Etymonline date it to 1835, American English, when Colt named his pistol for its set of chambers that turn in succession as it is fired;^[4][3] Etymonline adds that his first model had a revolving bored barrel, and later ones a revolving cylinder.^[3] The OED's first quotation for the gun is from Dickens's Martin Chuzzlewit (1844),^[2] and the verb "to shoot with a revolver" follows in 1858.^[2] One of Colt's revolvers of 1873, the Peacemaker, became the most popular pistol in the American West.^(Popik|"Peacemaker (Colt revolver)", 3 January 2007) Later technical senses include a revolving astronomical camera (1876) and a furnace with a revolving chamber (1879),^[2] and in American finance, from the 1970s, a revolving credit arrangement and a person who carries a balance on a credit card.^[2] In American slang of the late 19th century a revolver was a habitual offender, always going back to prison.^[8]

Timeline

• 1698 – a revolutionary (rare, obsolete).^[2]
• 1750 – a thing that revolves, especially part of a machine.^[2][7]
• 1835 – Samuel Colt's pistol.^[3][4]
• 1844 – the handgun, in Dickens.^[2]
• 1858 – verb, to shoot with a revolver.^[2]
• 1865 – US slang, a habitual offender.^[8]
• 1971 – a revolving credit arrangement.^[2]
• 1977 – a person who carries a credit-card balance.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A handgun with a turning cylinder of several chambers, so that several shots can be fired without reloading.^[9][7][2]
2. Something that revolves, especially a revolving part of a machine.^[7][2]
3. In surveying and navigation, the case of the three-point problem that has no single solution, when the observer stands on a circle through the three fixed points.^[7]
4. In finance, a revolving credit arrangement; also a person who does not pay off a credit-card balance in full each month.^[2]
5. (US slang) A habitual offender, repeatedly sent back to prison; a recidivist.^[8]

Verb

1. To shoot someone with a revolver.^[2]

Related words

• revolve
• revolution
• involve
• volume

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
6. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ a b c Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
9. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins