From which language does the word howitzer originate
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
Howitzer a document dating from 1440; later German renderings include "haussnitz" and, eventually "haubitze", from which derive the Scandinavian "haubits", Croatian, Polish and Serbian "haubica", Finnish "haupitsi", Russian and Bulgarian "gaubitsa (гаубица)", Italian "obice", Spanish "obús", Portuguese "obus", French "obusier" and the Dutch word "houwitser," which led to the English word "howitzer". Since the First World War, the word ""howitzer"" has been increasingly used to describe artillery pieces that, strictly speaking, belong to the category of "gun-howitzers" – relatively long barrels and high muzzle velocities combined with multiple propelling charges and high maximum elevations. This is particularly true in the armed