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
Czech Republic Boii". The current English name comes from the Polish ethnonym associated with the area, which ultimately comes from the Czech word "Čech". The name comes from the Slavic tribe () and, according to legend, their leader Čech, who brought them to Bohemia, to settle on Říp Mountain. The etymology of the word "Čech" can be traced back to the Proto-Slavic root "*čel-", meaning "member of the people; kinsman", thus making it cognate to the Czech word "člověk" (a person). The country has been traditionally divided into three lands, namely Bohemia ("Čechy") in the west, Moravia ("Morava") in the east, and