What does the M in M-16 stand for?
Or to state that grammatically correctly: for what does the M in M-16 stand?
Military.
The applicable standard is MIL-STD-1464A (Army Nomenclature System). See Miscellaneous Designation Systems.
Strictly speaking M-16 is not complete without the qualifier “rifle.” Not likely to be confused with the M-4 carbine which is essentiall the same weapon but with a different barrel length and buttstock type but in WWII an M-1 could be the Garand rifle or vastly different carbine. Neither had a single part that was interchangable and though both used a nominal 0.308" diameter bullet the ammunition was othewise completely different and also non-interchangable.
BTW, the original model number (and what the civilian version is still called), the AR-15, got its name & number from the company that originally designed & produced it, Armalite.
It can also stand for Messier see here.
Strinka writes:
> Or to state that grammatically correctly: for what does the M in M-16 stand?
“For what does the M in M-16 stand?” is no more grammatically correct than “What does the M in M-16 stand for?”, and “What does the M in M-16 stand for?” is easier to understand. Forget the notion that you’re not supposed to end a sentence with a preposition. No such rule ever really applied in English.
To be pedantic, it’s M16, M16A1, M16A2, etc., not M-16.
The M in M-16 originally stood for Model, and designated a piece of equipment accepted for service by the US Army (and there was a similar “T” code for Test/development items - which sometimes ended up in limited service as substitute or special purpose equipment). As noted by Padeye, it is meaningless unless you include the name of the item which it is the 16th model of. I don’t know that it actually stands for anything now, as practically everything seems to be assigned an M code as early as the initial design stage.
As Churchill once said, jokingly showing how absurd it can get avoiding ending with a preposition, “That is something up with which I will not put.”
Originally, the M stood for Model and referred to the year of an items intorduction to service. Examples include the Pistol, M1911 and Rifle, M1903. Even though sequential numbers began to be used in the 1930’s, it was not unusual to see the old method employed on occasion, like the Rifle, M1941 (aka the Johnson Rifle). Of course, the Johnson was type-approved by the Marine Corps, rather than the Army’s Board of Ordnance. That being the case, it seems that it should have used the Navy’s Mark/MOD nomenclature instead.
Prior to World War II, many countries used the year in which a weapon was developed as part of its nomenclature. The Germans and Russians did this prominently; nearly every rifle and pistol of German and Russian make carries its year of introduction in its nomenclature.
I thought Mattel produced the first batch?
And yeah, you wanna put the weapon description after the number. Is that an M-1 rifle, or an M-1 Abrams main battle tank?
Part of that rumor may be traced back to a film prop used by the Duke in The Green Berets. The is lightweight and early rifles in particular were somewhat more delicate than an M14 but they were never made by a toy company.