Talk:pistol

We just found the information that Pistol/Pistola comes from Czeck. From the book Schotts Sammelsurium, Ben Schott. Can somebody confirm this information? If yes, post this on the page?

The OED supports this (Czech -> Silesian German -> French -> English), and suggests that the term may have arisen during the Hussite wars. However, per the OED, it is also possible that the French word derived from the Italian (deprecated template usage) pistolese. -- Visviva 00:05, 5 January 2009 (UTC)

RfV discussion

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pistol

Rfv-sense: (Shakespeare) A creative and unpredictable jokester, a constant source of entertainment and surprises. WT:RFC#pistol brings up the issue of whether it exists at all. Mglovesfun (talk) 12:19, 11 March 2013 (UTC)

Widespread colloquial use in the US. I think of it as a euphemism for pisser. "She's a real pistol." DCDuring TALK 13:20, 11 March 2013 (UTC)

I wonder if sense 4 is redundant to sense 3—can the term really be applied only to small boys in the Southern U.S.? —Angr 21:28, 11 March 2013 (UTC)

I managed to not see sense 4. Yes that is a tame version of the definition. The sense formerly marked Shakespeare looks like a PoV definition to support a particular theory for the derivation of the sense. A case could easily be made for it being metonymously derived from hot as a pistol. DCDuring TALK 21:57, 11 March 2013 (UTC)

Cited. — Ungoliant ^(Falai) 12:22, 12 September 2013 (UTC)

RfV passed DCDuring TALK 13:22, 17 September 2013 (UTC)

RFC discussion: March 2013–August 2017

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pistol

One of the senses is tagged with the 'context' "Shakespeare". Does this mean only the bard used the sense in question? - -sche (discuss) 19:55, 4 March 2013 (UTC)

If the sense in question is the character in Henry V named Pistol, then yes, but then it shouldn't be listed as a meaning of pistol. I don't know whether Shakespeare—or anyone else, for that matter—also uses it as a common noun. —Angr 21:04, 5 March 2013 (UTC)

Widespread use in the US, as if a euphemism for pisser. "She's a real pistol". Shakespeare is, of course, not a context. DCDuring TALK 13:17, 11 March 2013 (UTC)

Etymologically, it is probably from the simile hot as a pistol. MWOnline has "a notably sharp, spirited, or energetic person", which different but not dissimilar from our definition, but, then again, it isn't straining to make a Shakespearean connection. DCDuring TALK 13:32, 11 March 2013 (UTC)

• Looks good now --New WT User Girl (talk) 10:22, 27 August 2017 (UTC)