Armbrust

German

FWOTD – 14 November 2017

Etymology

From Middle High German armbrust (12th century, variants armbrost, armborst, armbrast, armbst), from Medieval Latin arbalista, from Late Latin arcuballista, from Latin arcus (“bow”) + ballista (“ancient military engine for hurling missiles”) (compare English arbalest); modified, possibly by folk etymology, but as Grimm notes, the German noun was neuter well into the early modern period which excludes direct interpretation as a compound Arm (“arm”) +‎ Brust (“breast”).

The feminine gender became predominant in the 18th century, clearly motivated by popular etymology as a compound in -Brust, also made explicit in hyphenated spelling Arm-Brust. Gottsched (1748) suggested a derivation from Arm (“arm”) +‎ Rüstung (“armament, armour”), in which he was followed by Boeheim (1890).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈarmbrʊst/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʊst

Noun

Armbrust f (genitive Armbrust, plural Armbrüste or Armbruste)

1. crossbow, arbalest
   • 1792, C. Meiners, L. I. Spittler, Neues Göttingisches Historisches Magazin, vol. 1, part 2, page 305:

     Zu den Waffen, die nicht allen Teutschen Völkern gemein, sondern nur gewissen Stämmen derselben eigenthümlich waren, gehörte die Armbrust.

     The crossbow was one of the weapons that were not common to all German peoples, but peculiar only to certain tribes.

Declension

Declension of Armbrust [feminine]

	singular			plural
	indef.	def.	noun	def.	noun
nominative	eine	die	Armbrust	die	Armbrüste, Armbruste
genitive	einer	der	Armbrust	der	Armbrüste, Armbruste
dative	einer	der	Armbrust	den	Armbrüsten, Armbrusten
accusative	eine	die	Armbrust	die	Armbrüste, Armbruste

Derived terms

• Armbrustschütze

Further reading

• “Armbrust” in Duden online
• “Armbrust” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache