« Native American cultures, alliances were always diverse | Home | Indian Pidgin English shaped the Old West »
What do you call the guys with the pistols?
Most sources I've read suggest that "gunfighter," and "gunman" were terms used in the later days of the Old West (probably after the 1870s or '80s) for someone who was also known as a "shootist," or in our post-Western movie times, the guy who had the pistol and wasn't afraid or hesitant to use it.
According to Winfred Blevins' highly useful "Dictionary of the American West" (to which I've referred here before), "gunfighter" and "gunmen" as well as "gunfight" and "gunfighting" all came along in the late 1800s -- and there was never any distinction made between "gunfighter" as the sort of good guy or "gunman" as the bad guy. Blevins suggests that such terms almost always referred to pistols rather than long guns, i.e., rifles.
(Interestingly, the term "shooting iron" in reference to handguns is found as far back as 1787.)
Blevins says the first use of "gunman" was in a 1903 New York newspaper. The Old West lawman-turned-newspaper-sports-writer, Bat Masterson, used the term "gunfighter" when he wrote of his Western adventures and people he encountered. The related term "gunslinger" has been traced back to early Western movies, but isn't authentic to the Old West. It was picked up quickly by Western writers and popularized in novels and movies.
One of the interesting, archaic terms which Blevins says goes back to the days of the American Revolutionary period is "gunsman" -- which he says probably wasn't limited to those who used pistols.
Find Gunfighter Books, Collectibles on eBay!
| Listings from eBay |
 The Gunfighters The Old West Time Life  See Full Details |
 MAN FROM YESTERDAY amp THE GUNFIGHTERS JOHN DANIELS See Full Details |
 Gunfighters of the Old West VHS 1992 See Full Details |
 NOS MEL McDANIELGUNFIGHTERS SONG See Full Details |
 Vintage 1960s HOLLYWOOD GUNFIGHTERS ACTOR BROCHURE See Full Details |
 WESTERN GUNFIGHTERS 1 STRICT VF MARVEL STAN LEE 1970 See Full Details |
Related Articles:
- Which term to use — Indians or Native Americans?
- Little gun had amazing impact on history of westward expansion
- Prospectors needed grub, they looked for grubstakers
- Indian Pidgin English shaped the Old West
Topics: Gunfighters, Westernisms | No Comments »