Thank you all very much indeed. The P 08 is still an elegant and popular pistol. Its hardly surprising that it would have picked up a nickname or two along the way. And yes, "disimproved" sounds quite odd to me. I read somewhere that many English-language Irish idioms are literal translations of Gaelic phrases or application of Gaelic grammer and syntax to English, i.e. "I'm after a hard day at work" or addressing a group as "yous" instead of the English you(singular). Thanks again.