Terminology and Abbreviations

Abbreviations

Overview

The Swiss Army, like many others around the world, is a prolific user of abbreviations. More or less every item or concept used by the Army can be abbreviated, and there are military regulations specifying the exact way in which terms should be correctly shortened (so as to avoid any misunderstandings over meanings). Over time, there have been at least two main systems of abbreviation, but, for the most part, the later scheme has continued to be used for decades without much by way of modification. For that reason, the bulk of information on this page will deal with this second scheme, but some notable outliers will be explained as well. The exact dates at which these schemes were adopted is unclear, but it appears that the second system was brought at some point in the first fifteen years of the 20th Century (i.e. 1900-1915 or so). Some particularly entrenched terms from the first system remained in common parlance and so were not updated, remaining as anachronisms.

Separate schemes of abbreviation were compiled for each of the Swiss Army's languages of command (French, German and Italian - Romansh, which is the fourth national language of Switzerland, is not used by the Army on an official level, despite experiments between 1988 and 1995), but some were used across languages if the item in question was particularly well-known (a notable example being 'G P 11', which can sometimes be heard in use by French speakers in place of the technically correct Cart. 11 F).

Punctuation and Formation

Editor's note: this article focuses on German-language information, as it is the Swiss national language with which the author is most familiar. Rules may vary slightly for French and Italian.

Several rules govern the correct formation and spelling of abbreviated designations:

• Abbreviated forms are written with the first letter - and only the first letter - of each abbreviated word capitalised (unless the word is a compound word where the first component is an adjective, in which case the first two letters are capitalised). 

• The year component of a designation is abbreviated to its last two digits.

• Components of abbreviations (words, years, numbers, etc.) are separated by a space - and only a space.

• Decimals are represented with a comma [as is standard in continental Europe].

• The usage of periods following abbreviated words is optional, but must be consistent. 

• When abbreviating compound words, the abbreviation will in principle combine the shortened forms of each of the individual components.

Thus, the following are all examples of correctly presented abbreviations:

• Ig. 96/11 [Infanteriegewehr 1896/11]

• Pist Pat 41 [Pistolenpatrone 1941]

• Cp. Fus Mont III/15 [Compagnie de fusiliers de montagne III/15]

• Cart 5,6mm 90 F [Cartuccia 5,6mm 1990 per fucile]

• Rak. Rohr. 50 [Raketenrohr 50]

And the following are all examples of incorrectly presented abbreviations:

• StGw 57 (should be Stgw 57)

• Kar 1911 (should be Kar 11)

• Pist-75 (should be Pist 75)

• 7.5mm Kadetten-Pat. (should be 7,5mm Kadetten-Pat)

• Geb. Inf Bat 45 (should be Geb. Inf. Bat 45)

Exceptions to the Standard Abbreviation Scheme

As stated above, some abbreviations - if already entrenched in common usage - were not updated to the new scheme. Below is a list, which will be added to as and when new ones are found.

• Ig: Infanteriegewehr. This would otherwise be Inf. Gw., but the 'Ig' form was already widely-used and -known.

• GP: Gewehrpatrone. This should be Gw. Pat., or at least G. P., but is the most egregious outlier that was kept despite the updated system. In fact, for other cartridges than the 7,5mm GP 90 and GP 11 (such as the 5,6mm Gw. Pat. 90 used in the Stgw. 90), the 'correct' form was implemented. However, 7.5x55mm was already widely colloquially referred to as 'GP 11', not just in German but across the whole of Switzerland, and the wider world, and so the decision was made to stick with it.

Additionally, the character '+' stands in for the Swiss flag, and means 'Federal'. Many federally-controlled facilities and factories have names consisting of two or three letters separated by the '+'. The most well-known of these is probably W+F, which stands for 'Eidgenössisches Waffenfabrik Bern'. These abbreviations are never written with a period or space. Due to their disobeying of essentially all of the standard rules for forming abbreviations, they have been presented separately to the main lists, at the bottom of this page. 

List of Abbreviations

The following is a non-exhaustive list of abbreviations which the collector and researcher of Swiss rifles is likely to encounter. Each is presented in the format of 'abbreviation - long form - translation'. They are listed with periods after words, but these are (as stated above) optional. For a more detailed overview of abbreviations of ranks, unit types, and formation sizes, please see our Troop Tags page.

German-language Abbreviations

• Bat. - Bataillon - Battalion

• Eidg. - Eidgenössische - Federal

• Fus. - Fusilier - Fusilier

• Geb. - Gebirge - Mountain

• G. - Granate - Grenade

• G. P. - Gewehrpatrone - Rifle Cartridge

• Gw. Pat. - Gewehrpatrone - Rifle Cartridge

• HPz - Hohlpanzer - Hollow Charge

• Ig. - Infanteriegewehr - Infantry Rifle

• Inf. - Infanterie - Infantry

• Kal. - Kaliber - Calibre

• Kar. - Karabiner - Carbine

• Manip. - Manipulier - Inert

• Mark. - Markier - Blank

• Nb. - Nebel - Smoke

• Pat. - Patrone - Cartridge

• Pist. - Pistole - Pistol

• Pz. - Panzer - Tank/Armour

• Rev. - Revolver - Revolver

• Sch. - Schützen - Carabinier

• St. - Sturm - Assault

• U. - Übung - Training

French-language Abbreviations

• Bat. - Bataillon - Battalion

• Car - Carabinier - Carabinier

• Cart. - Cartouche - Cartridge

• F. - Fusil - Rifle

• Fus. - Fusilier - Fusilier

• Inf. - Infanterie - Infantry

• Manip. - Manipulation - Inert

• Marq. - Marquage - Blank

• Mont. - Mountain

• Mq. - Mousqueton - Carbine 

• Pist. - Pistole - Pistol

• Rev. - Revolver - Revolver

Italian-language Abbreviations

• Bat. - Battaglione - Battalion

• Cart. - Cartuccia - Cartridge 

• F. - Fucile - Rifle

• Fant. - Fanteria - Infantry

• Manip. - Manipolazione - Inert

• Marc. - Marcante - Blank

• Mc. - Moschetto - Carbine

• Pist. - Pistola - Pistol

• Riv. - Rivoltella - Revolver

List of Non-Standard Abbreviations for Organisations, Facilities or Institutions

• K+W - Eidgenössisches Konstruktionswerkstätte Thun - Federal Construction Workshops, Thun

• MF+A - Eidgenössisches Munitionsfabrik Altdorf - Federal Ammunition Factory, Altdorf

• MF+T - Eidgenössisches Munitionsfabrik Thun - Federal Ammunition Factory, Thun

• W+F - Eidgenössisches Waffenfabrik Bern - Federal Weapons Factory, Bern

[LISTS INCOMPLETE]