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
Name of the Czech Republic on Geographical Names (PCGN) recommended the use of "Czechia" and added it as the sole form of the country name to their list of country names. On 26 September 2016, the International Organization for Standardization included the short name "Czechia" in the official ISO 3166 country codes list. Google switched to "Czechia" on Google Maps and Android country settings in January, 2017. The name "Czechia" and its respective translations are also included in the Interinstitutional style guide of the European Union. The equivalent of the Czech short form is in routine use by most other languages. In a few cases