ammunition

pronunciation

How to pronounce ammunition in British English: UK [ˌæmjuˈnɪʃn] word uk audio image

How to pronounce ammunition in American English: US [ˌæmjuˈnɪʃn] word us audio image

Noun:

projectiles to be fired from a gun
any nuclear or chemical or biological material that can be used as a weapon of mass destruction
information that can be used to attack or defend a claim or argument or viewpoint

Word Origin

ammunition: ammunition: [17] Ammunition is one of many words which resulted from a mistaken analysis of ‘article’ plus ‘noun’ (compare ADDER). In this case, French la munition ‘the munitions, the supplies’ was misapprehended as l’ammunition, and borrowed thus into English. At first it was used for military supplies in general, and it does not seem to have been until the beginning of the 18th century that its meaning became restricted to ‘bullets, shells, etc’.The word munition itself was borrowed into English from French in the 16th century. It originally meant ‘fortification’, and came from the Latin noun mūnītiō; this was a derivative of the verb munīre, ‘defend, fortify’, which in turn was based on the noun moenia ‘walls, ramparts’ (related to mūrus ‘wall’, the source of English mural).Also from munīre, via medieval Latin mūnīmentum, comes muniment [15], a legal term for ‘title deed’; the semantic connection is that a title deed is a means by which someone can ‘defend’ his or her legal right to property.=> muniment, munition, mural

ammunition (n.): 1620s, from French soldiers' faulty separation of Middle French la munition into l'ammunition; from Latin munitionem (nominative munitio) "a fortifying" (see munition), and at first meaning all military supplies in general. The mistake in the word perhaps was by influence of French a(d)monition "warning." The error was corrected in French (Modern French munition), but retained in English.

3. Most of the major ammunition manufacturers , such as winchester and remington , now offer copper bullets as an alternative .