Howitzer groups called batteries. The English word ""howitzer"" comes from the Czech word ""houfnice"", from "houf", "crowd", and "houf" is in turn a borrowing from the Middle High German word "Hūfe" or "Houfe" (modern German "Haufen"), meaning "heap". "Haufen", sometimes in the compound "Gewalthaufen", also designated a pike square formation in German. In the Hussite Wars of the 1420s and 1430s, the Czechs used short barreled ""houfnice"" cannons to fire at short distances into crowds of infantry, or into charging heavy cavalry, to make horses shy away. The word was rendered into German as "aufeniz" in the earliest attested use in
Graham (given name) Graham (given name) Graham () is a masculine given name in the English language. According to some sources, it comes from an Old English word meaning "grey home". According to other sources, it comes from the surname "Graham", which in turn is an Anglo-French form of the name of the town of Grantham, in Lincolnshire, England. The settlement is recorded in the 11th century "Domesday Book" variously as "Grantham", "Grandham", "Granham" and "Graham". This place name is thought to be derived from the Old English elements "grand", possibly meaning "gravel", and "ham", meaning "hamlet" the English word given to small