disarmament

Etymology

It is formed from English dis- + armament on the model of the verb disarm,^[2][3][4] and the OED compares French désarmement (1616) and Spanish desarmamiento (late 15th century).^[2] Merriam-Webster and Webster's Third instead call it an adaptation of the French noun influenced by armament,^[5][6] and Dictionary.com and the Shorter Oxford form it from disarm with the suffix -ment after armament, the Shorter Oxford adding the French word as a model.^[7][8] The verb is from Old French desarmer, formed from des- and armer (“to arm”),^[9][3] and the noun armament is from Latin armāmentum (“equipment, gear”), from armō (“to arm”), from arma (“weapons”).^[9][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The action of disarming, a reduction of military readiness: 1710, in D. Jones's Compleat History of Europe.^[2] The 1989 edition of the OED, Etymonline and Barnhart dated the word to 1795,^[10][9][3] Barnhart in letters of Burke;^[3] Dictionary.com gives 1785–95.^[7]

Semantic evolution

The word was used especially of reducing an army and navy from a war to a peace footing,^[9][10] and the OED now defines it more broadly as the limitation or renunciation of arms by a country.^[2] The OED notes the earlier noun disarming in the same sense.^[2] From 1887 it was extended to the reduction of tariffs, duties and taxes, as economic or tariff disarmament.^[2] The Shorter Oxford records nuclear disarmament and unilateral disarmament as set phrases.^[8]

Timeline

• 1710 – the action of disarming; the reduction of military capacity.^[2] Barnhart's first record is in Burke's letters of 1795.^[3]
• 1887 – the reduction of tariffs and other economic barriers.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. The reduction or abolition of a country's armed forces and weapons: unilateral disarmament.^{[11][5][2][8]}
2. The act of disarming, or the state of being disarmed.^[12][11]
3. The reduction or removal of tariffs and other economic barriers.^[2]

Word family

• nondisarmament
• prodisarmament

Related words

• disarm
• armament
• arm

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
5. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
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 Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
8. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
10. ^ a b Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
12. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins