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 and Politics at the British Embassy in Prague, Giles Portman, showed a willingness to accept the name "Czechia". Portman said in 2000, "Czechs still use the name "Česká republika" rather than "Česko", and the English equivalent, "the Czech Republic", rather than "Czechia". Were that pattern to change, we would have no problem at all with adapting accordingly. But we feel that the initiative for that change must come from the Czech side and not from us." In 2013, Czech president Miloš Zeman recommended the wider official use of "Czechia", and on 14 April 2016, the government agreed to make "Czechia"