shrapnel

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈʃɹæpnəl/^[1]

Etymology

It is named after Henry Shrapnel (1761–1842), the British army officer who invented the shell.^{[2][3][4][5][6]} The surname is thought to be a metathesized form of Charbonnel, a diminutive of Old French charbon “charcoal”.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

A hollow artillery shell filled with bullets and a small bursting charge, designed to explode in the air in front of the enemy.^[4][7][2]

Semantic evolution

Shrapnel developed the shell as an officer in the Royal Artillery and called it “spherical case” ammunition;^[4][2] the name shrapnel shell is recorded from 1806 and was later adopted by the British army.^[2] The word came to be used of the balls in such a shell,^[2][1] and from 1940, during the Blitz, of fragments from any shell, bomb or mine,^[4][2][7][3] a use Etymonline calls erroneous.^[4] In Australian and New Zealand military slang it also means small change.^[7][1]

Timeline

• 1806 – the shell.^{[2][3][4][5][7]}
• 1837 – verb, to shell with shrapnel.^[7]
• 1919 – Australian and New Zealand slang for small change.^[7]
• 1940 – fragments from shells or bombs.^[2][3][4][7]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. Fragments thrown out by an exploding shell, bomb or mine.
2. An artillery shell filled with metal balls and timed to burst in the air near enemy troops; also the balls themselves.
3. (Australia, New Zealand, slang) Small change.

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
3. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas, Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House
7. ^ a b c d e f g Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press