From the early part of the last century Colt Automatic Pistols were advertised for sale. They were semi-automatic as opposed to fully automatic, but they were still advertised as “automatic”.
Cartridges for these pistols are still sold with the following designations in which “ACP” stands for “Automatic Colt Pistol: .25 ACP, .32 ACP, .380 ACP and .45 ACP.
Some of these Automatic Colt Pistol cartridges were subsequently used in automatic weapons that were fully automatic, but originally they were used in automatic weapons that were semi-automatic.