Hmm. I work with words, and have learned some stuff about it over the years.
One of the basics is that all modern languages are living things. They change all the time, the reason dictionaries change--because dictionaries aren't derived from a panel of experts, but by "common usage." If a lot of people say "caliber" for "cartridge," then that's common usage. Someday soon caliber will probably be dictionary-listed as a synonym for cartridge.
By the way, neither my Webster's Unabridged or my compact copy of the Oxford English Dictionary make any differentiation between "revolver" and "pistol," something many shooters get nit-picky about.
In cowboy action circles, the discussion is about "pistols", one hardly ever hears the term, "revolver". The reasoning, handguns were all "pistols" until autoloaders came into being, at which time the distinction between "pistols" and "revolvers" evolved. The time frame of CAS is pre-autoloader, or before the introduction of 1911 Colt.
DF
