"Parabellum" Who or what is it???

[Blue Duck357]

Discussing the 9mm (Luger, Parabellum, 9x19) today and the topic came up of what parabellum means. I assumed it was the designers name but not really sure.

Kind of a part two to the question is if it is the designer why is it also called the 9mm Luger, wasn't it really just the 30 Mauser necked up? Oh heck I need the whole class

eduemecate me! ;)

[22x9]

Latin Phrase: Si vis pacem para bellum.
Translation: If you want peace, prepare for war.

G&A Handguns(August 2002) had a decent article about the creation of the 1908 Luger and 9x19 round. That should answer some of your questions. That is where I got the phrase and translation.

[Mal H]

Ok, here's the history class notes on Georg Luger, the inventor of the 9mm pistol bearing his name: http://www.lugerforum.com/luger.html

[Higgins]

It's also called 9mm Luger, I believe, because the Luger is the gun that made the 9x19 cartridge famous. The cartridge and gun kind of became synonymous early on.

[Alejandro Urdaneta]

Parabellum, means "for war".
Luger was the name of the pistol it was invented for, that, at the time, it was called Parabellum, too.
George Luger was the ideologist of the cartridge and Adolf Fischer contributed to its development.

By the way, congratulations to the 9mm Parabellum. This year, the 2002, is the first centenary of this cartridge. It was invented in 1902.

Bibliography: Edicion Especial de la Revista "Armas N° 1", 9mm Parabellum.

[Mal H]

Alejandro - As 22X9 says, parabellum is a contraction of the Latin "para bellum" which means "prepare [for] war". Para is from the Latin verb 'paro' which means to prepare or to plan. The 'for' is implied. Georg Luger originally called his invention "Pistole Parabellum".

[Blackhawk]

"Parabellum" is a trademark, a non-word, like Freon, Kodak, Polaroid, etc.

Some of us had a heck of a fight about it a few months ago, which you can find by searching for "Parabellum".

[tex_n_cal]

Si vis pacem, para bellum is sometimes attributed to Julius Caeser, smart Latin devil that he was:)

[Foxy]

I asked for the difference, if any between 9mm Luger's rim and 9mm Parabellum's rim. I got a through grounding in classical Latin.

http://www.thefiringline.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=108027&highlight=Parabellum

[Mal H]

Oh man! I just read the rest of that thread, Foxy. I had originally stopped looking at it after Sam's correct post. It sure turned into a shouting match. :D

This thread won't, I promise.

Oh, and Blackhawk, para bellum means "prepare [for] war" not "for war". ;)
[Exit stage right, laughing demonically.]

[Blue Duck357]

Thanks all! It was much more interesting than just being some guys name ;)

[Khornet]

was also the wire address of the Luger factory.

[T.Stahl]

Yes, Parabellum is a trademark, but more like Audi, Mercedes, Metabo, Semperit...
...which actually have a meaning in Latin. ;)

[Blackhawk]

Mal H,Oh, and Blackhawk, para bellum means "prepare [for] war" not "for war". I had originally stopped looking at it after Sam's correct post. [Exit stage right, laughing demonically.] Git back here!

Since it's a non-word in Latin or any other language, it has no original meaning in Latin or any other language any more than ascribing the French meaning of "Mal" to your name does.

But if you want to do that, you are "Poorly H".

My turn to laugh demonically as I dive under the curtain.... :D

[Hard Ball]

Nonsense! Julius Caeser carried a .45ACP. If he had had it with him on that fateful March 15th he would have lived longer! :D

[Kalvan]

A lot of confusion derives from the fact that para in Spanish means "for" but in Latin means "prepare!". What is generally overlooked is that the Spanish word for "war" is guerra, not bellum. The source of the trade name is the Latin phrase (usually attributed to Vegetius) si vis pacem, para bellum, which was the motto of DWM (Deutsche Waffen- und Munitionsfabriken AG), the company that manufactured the Borchardt pistol (http://www.cybershooters.org/Royal%20Armoury/Borchardt.JPG) (the first production semi-auto). Because of that they used "Parabellum" as their TELEX code. The Borchardt was a toggle action (derived from the Maxim machinegun) and was rather unwieldy and unreliable. When Mauser came out with the Mauser Military (aka, "Broomhandle") DWM lost their market. To counter Mauser, DWM had an employee, Georg Luger, clean up the Borchardt design. The result was marketed as the "Parabellum Pistol", but in the US it became known as the "Luger" after the designer.

An interesting sidenote ist that the Luger was originally produced in .30 Luger and the Swiss bought it in that caliber. When trying to sell it to Germany, however, the Navy balked because they felt it was not as powerful as their (10.6mm?) service revolver. Luger simply eliminated the bottleneck in the case to come up with the larger 9mm caliber and avoid having to totally redesign the gun.

[Rickmeister]

Nonsense! Julius Caeser carried a .45ACP. If he had had it with him on that fateful March 15th he would have lived longer!LOL! Nor did Nero play the fiddle when Rome burned! He had a flame-thrower, despite the fact that neither would be invented for another thirteen-hundred and eighteen-hundred years, respectively. :D

BTW: I always though "Parabellum" was what Quasimodo was told every Sunday morning. :p

Never mind. :rolleyes:

[Mike Irwin]

"despite the fact that neither would
be invented for another thirteen-hundred and eighteen-hundred years, respectively."


Don't be too sure about that...

I believe it was the Byzantines who developed a concoction (greek fire?) that could be PUMPED through nozzles and sprayed fairly decent distances.

Essentially, a flame thrower close to 1,000 years ago

[Rickmeister]

I stand corrected. Greek fire was indeed the first practical flame-throwing (flame-spraying?) weapon, and was propelled with the help of a huge bellows.

But the fiddle remark stands. What Nero actually played (and this is only an apocryphal, not an historical account) was a lyre.

Sheesh! Now we're OT.