Other forms: revolvers
A revolver is a handgun whose chambers turn round to line up with the barrel. Six shots in a cylinder that revolves as you fire.
The name comes from that revolving cylinder, and it is what separates a revolver from a pistol, which feeds rounds from a magazine in the grip. It was the standard sidearm of the nineteenth century and remains the weapon of every western film. The word gave us the phrase six-shooter. Modern police and armies use semi-automatic pistols almost everywhere instead.
1nounrevolverA handgun with a revolving cylinder holding the cartridges.
“He kept an old revolver in the drawer.”
Latin
revolvō
Old French
revolver
Middle English
revolven
English
revolve
English, today
revolver
Built from
From revolve + -er. From revolve + -er, coined by Samuel Colt in 1835. revolve comes from Middle English revolven, from Old French revolver, from Latin revolvō. From Middle English revolven (“to change direction”), borrowed from Old French revolver (“to reflect upon”), from Latin revolvō (“turn over, roll back, reflect upon”), from re- (“back”) + volvō (“roll”); see voluble, volve.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA