Weapon Proficiency "Type"?

[Evilschemer]

When you take a Weapon Proficiency feat, it says select a "type" of weapon. I took that to mean a specific weapon like "tulwar" or "scimitar" or "broadsword". However, type could also mean "Martial weapons" or "Exotic weapons", and to add to possible confusion, on the weapons table, "type" refers to "slashing", "bludgeoning", etc.

Could someone ease my nascent confusion and tell me precisely what the feat is referring to when it mentions a "type" of weapon?

 

[Ibram]

you select a specific weapon, not the overall group

 

[argo]

The Simple Weapon Proficiency feat lets you use all simple weapons (redundant since every class gets this as a class feature).

The Martial and Exotic Weapon Proficiency feats let you use a single weapon you pick when you take the feat (ie: warhammer or greatsword). If you want to use a different weapon you have to take the feat again.

Remember that you can still use a weapon you are not proficient in, you just take a -4 penalty on all attack rolls with that weapon.