armamentariumn.
/ˌɑːməmɛnˈtɛːrɪəm/, /ˌɑːməm(ə)nˈtɛːrɪəm/, U.S. /ˌɑrməˌmɛnˈtɛriəm/, /ˌɑrməmənˈtɛriəm/ 1. Formerly: †a building in which arms and armour are kept, an arsenal (obsolete). Now: the collection of weapons and military equipment in a country's possession.In quot. 1647: a fort. In quot. a1650 in plural, perhaps with the sense ‘armaments, weaponry’.
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1647 J. Greaves Disc. Romane Foot 18 The proof..is taken from an ancient Romane armamentarium, or Fort, neer the sea.
a1650 S. D'Ewes Jrnls. Parl. Queen Elizabeth anno 1601 (1682) 671/2 The making of Armamentaria is a Regality belonging only to the King and the Crown of England.
1683 J. Turner Pallas Armata ii. xxi. 129 In this Camp, I find no place for an Armamentarium, or Magazine, no place for their Engines and Machines, their Catapults, Balists, Rams, Towers, and the rest of their Artillery.
1685 E. Browne Brief Acct. Trav. Europe (ed. 2) 168 The Armamentarium-Armory or Arsenal, is a long, square Building, wherein are about Four hundred brass Pieces of Ordnance.
a1691 P. Skippon in Coll. Voy. & Trav. (1732) VI. 446/2 The Armamentarium is well provided with all sorts of arms.
1889 Cent. Dict. (at cited word) Armamentarium, an armamentary.
1977 New Yorker 25 July 40/2 It is exceeded in toxicity only by..certain substances in the armamentarium of nerve gas and other chemical-warfare weapons.
2010 Pittsburgh (Pa.) Post-Gaz. (Nexis) 21 May b6 He would be fully aware of this dire consequence if Israel were to give up its nuclear armamentarium.
2. The range of equipment (medicines, instruments, etc.) and therapeutic techniques available to a medical practitioner in combating disease and ill health.
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the world > health and disease > healing > medical appliances or equipment > [noun]
armamentarium1825
1784 S. Johnson Let. 12 Aug. (1994) IV. 364 In my armamentarium medicum I took..a bottle of Tincture of Cantharides.]
1825 Lancet 31 Dec. 472/2 We are disposed to consider this instrument as something useful added to the armamentarium of our art.
1874 D. B. St. J. Roosa Dis. Ear 171 The ordinary armamentarium of the surgeon.
1906 V. Horsley in S. Paget Life (1919) 236 A whole armamentarium of drugs.
1964 Jrnl. Obstetr. & Gynaecol. 71 668/2 Dilatation and curettage has a major place in the diagnostic and therapeutic armamentarium of the obstetrician and gynaecologist.
1993 A. N. Cranin et al. Atlas Oral Implantol. vi. 62/2 All the rakes in the armamentarium should have blunt, not sharp, tips.
3. More generally: an array or collection of resources available for a certain purpose.
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1844 Edinb. New Philos. Jrnl. 36 144 When we returned to the glacier of the Aar..we took along with us a complete armamentarium of tubes, probes, weights, balances, and other apparatus of this kind.
1901 Daily Chron. 12 Dec. 3/4 This substance..is not necessary for preserving the vegetables, any more than annotta added to colour milk is a necessary item in the dairyman's armamentarium.
1935 Nature 7 Sept. 385/1 The pituitary body provides the brain with an armamentarium of hormones, which are secreted in several ways.
1964 M. Critchley Developmental Dyslexia xiii. 76 The linguistic armamentarium may even include patterns from other cultures, as well as certain non-verbal systems of communication.
1991 Nation (N.Y.) 25 Mar. 361/1 The Federal Reserve is trying every stimulation in its armamentarium to jolt a fading economy back to life.
2004 New Yorker 10 May 104/2 His ‘Bernstein Dances’..used four hundred and twenty-seven costumes, a vast armamentarium of sets, and two and a half hours of our time.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2016; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
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