battery
pronunciation
How to pronounce battery in British English:
UK [ˈbætri]
How to pronounce battery in American English:
US [ˈbætəri]
-
- Noun:
- group of guns or missile launchers operated together at one place
- a device that produces electricity; may have several primary or secondary cells arranged in parallel or series
- a collection of related things intended for use together
- a unit composed of the pitcher and catcher
- a series of stamps operated in one mortar for crushing ores
- the heavy fire of artillery to saturate an area rather than hit a specific target
- an assault in which the assailant makes physical contact
Word Origin
- battery
- battery: [16] The original meaning of battery in English was literally ‘hitting’, as in assault and battery. It came from Old French batterie, a derivative of batre, battre ‘beat’ (from which English also gets batter [14]). The ultimate source of this, and of English battle, was Latin battuere ‘beat’. The development of the word’s modern diversity of senses was via ‘bombardment by artillery’, to ‘unit of artillery’, to ‘electric cell’: it seems that this last meaning was inspired by the notion of ‘discharge of electricity’ rather than ‘connected series of cells’.=> batter, battle
- battery (n.)
- 1530s, "action of battering," from Middle French batterie, from Old French baterie (12c.) "beating, thrashing, assault," from batre "beat," from Latin battuere "beat" (see batter (v.)). Meaning shifted in Middle French from "bombardment" ("heavy blows" upon city walls or fortresses) to "unit of artillery" (a sense recorded in English from 1550s). Extension to "electrical cell" (1748, first used by Ben Franklin) is perhaps from the artillery sense via notion of "discharges" of electricity. In Middle English, bateri meant only "forged metal ware." In obsolete baseball jargon battery was the word for "pitcher and catcher" considered as a unit (1867, originally only the pitcher).
Example
- 1. Their expensive lithium-ion battery packs will be leased .
- 2. Hawkes says he has solved this problem with tough ceramic-metal composites and a pressure-resistant lithium-ion battery system .
- 3. It 's the distance between battery park and columbia university .
- 4. His doctor put him through a battery of tests for early-onset dementia but found no signs of it .
- 5. Why no replaceable battery on an iphone ?