Distinctly Montana Magazine

w w w . d i s t i n c t l y m o n t a n a . c o m 39 T HE WORD RIFLE IS BOTH VERB AND NOUN. We can "rifle through" someone's valuables, and we can aim and fire a rifle. Are the two related? When asking such questions of a word, it's always helpful to study its chronology. The Oxford English Dictionary informs that rifle the verb predated the firearm rifle by three centuries. Cited as early as 1400, the verb rifle meant then, as it does now, "to ransack a place or person in order to steal valuables." In his 1667 epic poem Paradise Lost, John Milton evokes the inherent aggression implied in the term, writing, "Men…with impious hands Rifle the bowels of their mother Earth For Treasures." The term springs from an Old French verb rifler, meaning "to scratch or tear at" reflecting the scrabbling motion of someone searching quickly for valuables. Fast-forward 300 years to the mid 1700s, when the term rifle was ap- plied to firearm technology. "Scratching" or cutting spiral grooves inside a gun barrel imparts a spin to a projectile when it is fired, stabilizing its flight. A firearm with a rifled bore—a rifle—gets its name from the "scratch" sense of its ancestral Old French verb. RIFLE with CHRYSTI THE WORDSMITH W I L D W E S T W I L D W E S T W O R D S W O R D S those he served alongside—the brothers and sisters behind the badge who continue to do everything in their power to make sure they help one another get home each day. Unfortunately, we've also felt the gut-wrenching agony that comes with losing people in the line of duty, often in the most horrific of ways. We've witnessed the pain in the eyes of the family members they left behind, and it is nearly impossible not to think of them during those darkest hours of the night. I know countless law enforcement spouses who feel the same sense of relief when they are jolted from their sleep by those telltale noises assuring them their partner made it safe- ly back home again. We love the sound of Velcro. BROADWATER HOT SPRINGS 4920 W US HIGHWAY 12 • HELENA • 406.443.5777 • BROADWATERMT.COM 7 MINERAL POOLS 7 MINERAL POOLS • • TAPROOM & GRILL TAPROOM & GRILL POOLSIDE SERVICE POOLSIDE SERVICE • • LIVE MUSIC TUESDAYS LIVE MUSIC TUESDAYS

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