Etymologically
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revolver

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Pronunciation

  • US: /ɹɪˈvɒl.vɚ/[1]

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]

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