The Dussack- steel or wood???

[Corey Roberts]

I wonder if the difference in terminology could be analogous to modern terminology like handgun, pistol, and revolver. Each are essentially the "same thing" but each word has a slightly different meaning as to the specifics of the exact type of weapon being discussed. Perhaps Dussack, Messer etc. Are slightly different variants on the same basic weapon. Perhaps one of these words Dussack or Messer describes a broader category of weapons that are all similar, while another describes a specific type of that weapon, similar as to how handgun indicates a broad range of types of the same sort of weapon, but revolver is a specific example of a given weapon of that type. Then we hundreds of years later, get confused as to the nuances of terminology.