The prototype was at first referred to as the "automitrailleuse à chenilles Renault FT modèle 1917". "Automitrailleuse à chenilles" means "armoured car motorized machine gun with tracks." By this stage of the war, "automitrailleuse" was the standard word for an armoured car, but by the time the FT was designed there were two other types of French tank in existence and the term "char d'assaut" (from the French "char" - a cart or wagon, and "assaut"; attack or assault), soon shortened to "char", had at the insistence of Colonel Estienne, already been adopted by the French and was in common use. Once orders for the vehicle had been secured it was the practice at Renault to refer to it as the "FT". The vehicle was originally intended to carry a machine-gun, and was therefore described as a "char mitrailleur" - "mitrailleur" (from "mitraille"; grapeshot) had by this time come to mean "machine-gunner".