Catapult

The story of the word

καταπέλτης is usually read as κατά plus πάλλειν, to hurl against, though an older account takes the second element as πέλτη, the light shield, making the machine a shield-piercer. Greek engineers of the 4th century BC built them to shoot bolts rather than stones; the stone-thrower came later, with torsion springs of twisted sinew. English took the Latin form in the 16th century, and aircraft carriers gave the word its most violent modern job.

How it travelled

Ancient Greek → Latin → English

First recorded

16th century