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Old April 7, 2002, 04:43 PM   #5
James K
Member In Memoriam
 
Join Date: March 17, 1999
Posts: 24,383
Sorry, Blackhawk, T. Stahl is correct.

The quotation is from Vegitius, and says, "Qui desiderat pacem, praeparet bellum", or "whoever wants peace should prepare war". This is usually misquoted as "Si vis pacem, para bellum", which means, "If you want peace, prepare war."

It is a warning that the best way to maintain peace is to have the capability for war. Another version of the same idea is "Speak softly, but carry a big stick".

"Parabellum" was adopted by the German Deutsche Waffen-und Munitions Fabriken (DWM) as a cable address, the equivalent of a modern web site or e-mail address. They used it as a slogan or trademark on a number of guns, including the pistol we call the Luger (which is known as the Parabellum pistol in Europe) and the Parabellum machinegun used on WWI German aircraft.

So "para" really does mean "prepare", not "for", although we would probably say "prepare for war", not "prepare war" as the Latin has it.

FWIW, we call the pistol the "Luger" because Stoeger bought the sales rights for it early in the 20th century and wanted a unique name. They hit on the name of the designer/salesman Georg Luger, and registered the name as a Stoeger trademark. So no one else in the U.S. can call a pistol a "Luger" and the name is used only in the U.S. Also, note that "Luger" is spelled that way; not "Lugar" or "Lugger" and NO umlaut. It is pronounced to rhyme with "Ruger". Herr Luger's first name is pronounced "Gay-orgk", which is the German equivalent of George.

HTH

Jim
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