artillery: [14] Originally artillery meant ‘military supplies, munitions’ (Chaucer used it thus); it was not until the late 15th century that it came to be used for ‘weapons for firing missiles’ – originally catapults, bows, etc. The source of the English word was Old French artillerie, a derivative of the verb artiller ‘equip, arm’. This was an alteration of an earlier form atillier, probably influenced by art, but the ultimate provenance of atillier is not clear.
Some etymologists trace it back to a hypothetical Latin verb *apticulāre ‘make fit, adapt’, a derivative of aptus ‘fitting’ (source of English apt and adapt); others regard it as a variant of Old French atirier ‘arrange, equip’ (source of English attire [13]), which was based on tire ‘order, rank’, a noun of Germanic origin, related to Latin deus ‘god’.
artillery (n.)
late 14c., "warlike munitions," from Anglo-French artillerie, Old French artillerie (14c.), from artillier "to provide with engines of war" (13c.), which probably is from Medieval Latin articulum "art, skill," diminutive of Latin ars (genitive artis) "art." But some would connect it with Latin articulum "joint," and still others with Old French atillier "to equip," altered by influence of arte. Sense of "engines for discharging missiles" (catapults, slings, bows, etc.) is from late 15c.; that of "ordnance, large guns" is from 1530s.
实用例句
1. The city has been flattened by heavy artillery bombardments.
城市已被猛烈的炮火夷为平地。
来自柯林斯例句
2. Enemy forces lobbed a series of artillery shells onto the city.
敌军对该城发起连串炮轰。
来自柯林斯例句
3. Some of those artillery pieces look a little elderly.
那些大炮中有些看起来有点老掉牙了。
来自柯林斯例句
4. They traded artillery fire with government forces inside the city.
他们与城内的政府军互相开炮。
来自柯林斯例句
5. The two sides exchanged fire with artillery, mortars and small arms.