armature

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin armātūra (“military equipment, arms; troops”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} formed from armātus, the past participle of armō (“to arm”), and the suffix -ūra;^[2][3][4] the verb is from arma (“weapons”), literally tools of war.^[3] The Shorter Oxford, the Oxford Dictionary of English and the Concise Oxford take it through French armature,^[7][8][9] Barnhart through Middle French armature,^[10] and the American Heritage Dictionary through Old French armature.^[11] In post-classical Latin the noun also meant spiritual strength or defence (in the Vulgate), armour (9th century) and the defensive or aggressive equipment of animals (from the 12th century in British sources).^[2] The OED compares Catalan armatura, Spanish armadura, Portuguese armadura and Italian armatura.^[2] It is a doublet of armor.^[2][10][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

A detachment of armed soldiers, and the art of armed combat: both before 1450, in a translation (1408) of Vegetius's De Re Militari.^[2][12] Etymonline dates the word to about 1400.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The military senses, armed troops and skill in arms, died out in the 18th century, while "armour, weaponry" (before 1460) survives as an archaic use.^[2][7][12] The figurative sense, spiritual armour (1542, in Thomas Becon), alludes to Ephesians 6:11 in the Vulgate, Induite armaturam Dei, where earlier English Bibles had armour.^[2][10] From 1653 the word was used of the shells, spines and other protective or offensive structures of animals and plants;^[2] Barnhart and Etymonline date this sense to 1662 and the 1660s,^[10][3] and Johnson (1755) defined it only as armour, quoting Ray on creatures armed with shells and prickles.^[13] According to Barnhart and the Oxford Dictionary of English, this protective sense led to the keeper of a magnet, the iron bar that preserves its power (1747),^[2][10][8] which in turn led to the wire-wound core of a dynamo or electric motor (1834, or 1835 in Etymonline and Barnhart).^[2][3][10] The metal coatings of a Leyden jar were so called from 1776, after Italian usage.^[2] The sense "framework" followed in the late 19th century: of something abstract (1872), of a medieval building (1878), and of the lead holding the glass of a stained-glass window, or of the frame on which a sculpture is modelled (1880).^[2]

Timeline

• before 1450 – a detachment of armed soldiers (to 1768); the art of armed combat (to 1721).^[2][12]
• before 1460 – armour, weaponry.^[2][12]
• 1542 – figurative, spiritual armour or defence.^[2][10]
• 1653 – protective or offensive structures of an animal or plant.^[2] Barnhart dates it to 1662.^[10]
• 1747 – the keeper of a magnet.^[2] Barnhart dates it to 1752.^[10]
• 1776 – the metal coatings of a Leyden jar.^[2]
• 1834 – the wire-wound part of a dynamo or electric motor.^[2] Etymonline and Barnhart date it to 1835.^[3][10]
• 1872 – the underlying structure of something abstract.^[2]
• 1878 – the framework of a building.^[2]
• 1880 – the lead framework of a stained-glass window; the framework of a sculpture.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. The rotating part of an electric motor or generator, wound with the coils that carry the current.^[14][15][2]
2. The moving part of an electromagnetic device such as a relay, buzzer or loudspeaker.^[15][14]
3. A bar of soft iron placed across the poles of a magnet; a keeper.^[14][15][2]
4. A framework on which a sculpture is modelled in clay or another material.^[14][2]
5. Iron bars or a framework used to strengthen a building or hold the glass of a window.^[4][2]
6. A protective covering or structure of an animal or plant, such as a shell or spines.^[15][4][2]
7. The underlying structure of something abstract, such as a work or a system of thought.^[2]
8. (archaic) Armour or weaponry.^[7][4][2]
9. (obsolete, 1450–1768) A body of armed soldiers.^[2][7][12]
10. (obsolete, 1450–1721) The art of fighting in armour.^[2][7][12]

Related words

• arm
• armor
• army
• armada
• armament

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 32 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
6. ^ Gove, Philip Babcock, ed. (1961), Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam
7. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
11. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
12. ^ a b c d e f Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
13. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
14. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
15. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin