army

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /ˈɑː.mi/, US /ˈɑːr.mi/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English armee, borrowed from Old French armée (“armed troop, armed expedition”),^[2][3][4] from Medieval Latin armāta (“armed force”),^[2][4][3] from Latin armāta, the feminine of armātus, past participle of Latin armāre (“to arm”),^[2][4][5] from arma (“tools, weapons”),^[2][4] the source of arm in the sense “weapon”.^[2] Medieval Latin armāta also gave armada.^[5][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

An armed expedition by sea or land: about 1386,^[7] or about 1387–95, in Chaucer's prologue to the Canterbury Tales.^[3]

Semantic evolution

It was originally used of expeditions by sea or land,^[2] and an armed force in general is from about 1460.^[7] A naval force, a fleet, is from 1545 and is obsolete.^[7] “A host, multitude” is by about 1500,^[2] and a body of men armed and organized for war on land from 1557^[7] or the 1550s.^[2] The whole land forces of a state, the Army, is from 1647,^[7] and the restriction to land forces by the late 18th century.^[2] The Old English words for an army were here, preserved in harry and harrier, and fierd, related to faran “to travel”; in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle here generally meant the invading Vikings and fierd the local defence.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1386 – an armed expedition.^[7]
• c. 1460 – an armed force.^[7]
• c. 1500 – a host, multitude.^[2]
• 1545 – a fleet.^[7]
• 1557 – a land force.^[7]
• 1647 – the Army of a state.^[7]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A large organized body of soldiers for war on land.
2. The land forces of a country as a whole.
3. A large military unit made up of two or more corps.
4. A large group of people or animals; a multitude.
5. An organized group working for a cause: the Salvation Army.

Word family

• armyworm
• army ant
• army brat
• army cutworm
• Blue Army
• field army
• General of the Army
• Red Army

Related words

• arm
• armed
• armament
• armor
• armour
• armada
• armistice
• harry

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
5. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
6. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press