bombard

Etymology

The noun is inherited from Middle English bombard, also bumbard,^[2][3] borrowed from Anglo-Norman bombard (“a woodwind instrument”) and Middle French bombarde,^[4] recorded in French for a siege engine or large cannon from 1358 in the OED^[4] and 1363 in Barnhart.^[5] It is probably from Latin bombus (“a humming or booming sound”) with the suffix French -arde,^[4][6][7][5] and the Latin noun is from Ancient Greek βόμβος (bómbos, “a deep, hollow sound”), of imitative origin.^[8][9] Merriam-Webster Unabridged prefers an imitative base and calls the origin and spread of these words not fully explained,^[3] and the OED thinks the musical and military uses arose largely independently.^[4] Etymonline takes it directly from French bombe, the source of bomb.^[8] The verb is partly borrowed from Italian bombardare, recorded from before 1519, and partly borrowed from Middle French bombarder, from 1515.^[4] Other dictionaries give French alone,^{[10][8][3][9]} and Barnhart treats it as probably the English noun used as a verb.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

A low-pitched woodwind instrument, the shawm: before 1393, in John Gower's Confessio Amantis.^[4][11][12] The cannon follows before 1439, in John Lydgate's Fall of Princes,^[4][2] though Barnhart has the noun from 1436, as a catapult.^[5][13]

Semantic evolution

English took the instrument first and then the gun.^[4][12] According to the Century Dictionary, quoted by Etymonline, bombard was the usual European name for the cannon in the first century of its use.^[8] The weapon threw heavy stones; from 1575 the word could also mean the stone itself.^[4] In Shakespeare it is a large leather drinking vessel,^[4][12] probably from its shape, as Weekley suggests.^[12] John Taylor used this sense for a heavy drinker in 1617.^[4] Johnson (1755) already called the noun obsolete as a word for a cannon.^[14] The verb began in 1598, in Florio's dictionary, as firing such a gun without an object.^[4][5] The modern transitive sense, to attack a place with artillery, appears in the London Gazette of 1687, or 1686 in Barnhart and Merriam-Webster Unabridged.^[4][5][3] The OED's figurative use is from 1693,^[4] much earlier than the 1765 of Barnhart and Etymonline.^[5][8] Pelting with thrown objects followed in 1841,^[4] and physics applied the verb to streams of particles in 1896.^[4] The naval sense, a ship carrying mortars, dates from 1799, in a letter of Nelson's.^[4] Bombardment is recorded from 1702.^[5]

Timeline

• before 1393 – noun, a woodwind instrument, a shawm.^[4]
• before 1439 – noun, a large cannon firing stone balls.^[4][2]
• 1575 – noun, a stone projectile for such a cannon (last record 1807).^[4]
• 1598 – noun, a leather drinking vessel, in Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part 1; verb, to fire a large gun, in Florio.^[4]
• 1617 – noun, a heavy drinker (a single record).^[4]
• 1687 – verb, to attack with bombs or artillery.^[4]
• 1693 – verb, figurative, to assail persistently.^[4]
• 1799 – noun, a naval vessel carrying mortars.^[4]
• 1841 – verb, to pelt with thrown objects.^[4]
• 1896 – verb, in physics, to subject to a stream of particles.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. An early cannon that fired large stone balls.^[15][3][10]
2. A large shawm, a double-reed woodwind instrument of low pitch.^[3][4][10]
3. A naval vessel carrying mortars for firing shells; a bomb ketch.^[4][10]
4. (obsolete) A leather jug or tankard for drink.^[3][10][4]

Verb

1. To attack with artillery fire or bombs.^[15][3][4]
2. To assail persistently, especially with questions, requests or complaints: Callers bombarded the radio station with complaints.^[15][3][4]
3. To strike repeatedly with thrown objects; to pelt.^[4][10]
4. (physics) To direct a stream of high-energy particles or radiation at a substance.^[15][3][4]

Word family

• bombarder
• bombardment
• unbombarded
• bombardier

Related words

• bomb
• bombardon

Usage notes

The noun is stressed on the first syllable and the verb on the second.^[4][15][3]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c 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)
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ 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 33 34 35 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ a b c d e f Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
12. ^ a b c d Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
13. ^ Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
14. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
15. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins