This is reference, may I help you?*

I look things up for a living. I find answers. I search for things online with databases and google and occasionally, I have been known to use actual dead tree resources, like atlases and dictionaries.**

If you stop to think about all the text that passes in front of my eyes as a librarian and then again here, during my hours blogging, it would be safe to assume that I love words. I love the weight of history in their etymologies, and all the subtlety that can lie within their definitions. A single word can be powerful but put it in combination with others, and it can have limitless potential. I learned how to read when I was 4 years old and haven't ever stopped - language is beautiful, a purely human miracle, and I've been in love with it a long time.

So you can imagine my dismay when I visited James R. Rummel's blog and read a story about a gun store clerk belittling a woman because she didn't know what he felt was the correct definition of the word "pistol." (apparently this particular counter jockey missed good manners day at retail school) It led me to wonder about the word's true definition and, of course, the urge for research was irresistible.

Now there are a lot of dictionaries available and I'm sure quite a few heated debates have been had over which is the "correct" one, and why. Words are flexible according to their common use - language is nothing if not fluid and everchanging - and you can compare and contrast definitions indefinitely but there comes a time when you have to commit to a resource because you want an answer.

And for that, I choose the good old O.E.D. - The Oxford English Dictionary - because it is regarded by many to be the definitive record of the English language. It has been the "last word on words" for over a century now, so it's good enough for me.

So I did a simple search, no librarian-fu necessary, and here is what I found:

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pistol /pístl/ n. & v.

n.
1. a small hand-held firearm.
2. anything of a similar shape.

v.tr. (pistoled, pistoling or pistolled, pistolling)
shoot with a pistol.

- ORIGIN mid-16th century: from obsolete French pistole, from German Pistole, from Czech pit'ala, of which the original meaning was ‘whistle, fife,’ hence ‘a firearm’ because of the resemblance in shape of the barrel to a fife or pipe.

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And there you have it. Don't make me shush you.



*this is how I answer the phone at work. I will, under no circumstances, give my name or wear my name tag. And despite having a dumbed-down sign hanging over my desk that says "Information," I will always say "reference" instead.

**people sometimes seem to trust a book more than a website.