Reddit mentions of The Complete Guide to Fencing

There is a metric fuckton of nomenclature that has been used in fencing.

You have to remember that modern fencing has direct lineage from various western sword fighting, and a lot of theory of it is a culmination of schools and techniques from a number of European countries. Also much of the terminology that has been added is basically vestigial and completely useless.

For example, think of a counter attack where you 'turn out'.

Here's a modern example:

http://mrtopp.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/counterattack.jpg

Some people call it an esquive, which just means "dodge" in french.

You could also consider this an inquartata - which is an older word that means "quarter turn". Here is a capo ferro rapier plate showing the action.

http://www.scherma.roma.it/itaNEW/area-stampa/img/botte-capoferro-scanso.jpg

You can see, that while the movement and basic idea of it is similar, it isn't executed as gymnastically as it is in modern foil. And in some places, they refer to a "volte", which just means turning. So an inquartata could also be a demi-volte, or half turn.

The problem comes that each various old manual will have very specific instruction on how to 'properly' execute the action. So a 'correct' inquartata, to capo-ferro might require the sword hand to be supinated, while a digrassi demi-volte might insist that the hand is pronanted.

But does it really matter? It's all the same thing. The details that capo ferro might have found important might not apply to digrassi, and might not apply to modern foil, because each has slightly different concerns and different weapons etc.

Turning/dodging whatever. Knowing the terminology is nice when it comes to communicating with other people who know the same terminology, bust mostly plain English covers most situations, and it has the advantage that the other person doesn't need to study 17th century fencing manuals.

There are all sorts of different terminology that have been coined over the years, and still gets coined (sky hook). If you're really interested, this book, is long and dry, and gives a name to basically every modern fencing movement you can think of.

You'd also have to read up on history if you wanted to learn the most obscure older terminology. This book is not a bad start.

As for the modern slang (sky hook), you'd just have to browse the forums and be 'hip' with the 'kids'.