battery: [16] The original meaning of battery in English was literally ‘hitting’, as in assault and battery. It came from Old French batterie, a derivative of batre, battre ‘beat’ (from which English also gets batter [14]). The ultimate source of this, and of English battle, was Latin battuere ‘beat’. The development of the word’s modern diversity of senses was via ‘bombardment by artillery’, to ‘unit of artillery’, to ‘electric cell’: it seems that this last meaning was inspired by the notion of ‘discharge of electricity’ rather than ‘connected series of cells’. => batter, battle
battery (n.)
1530s, "action of battering," from Middle French batterie, from Old French baterie (12c.) "beating, thrashing, assault," from batre "beat," from Latin battuere "beat" (see batter (v.)).
Meaning shifted in Middle French from "bombardment" ("heavy blows" upon city walls or fortresses) to "unit of artillery" (a sense recorded in English from 1550s). Extension to "electrical cell" (1748, first used by Ben Franklin) is perhaps from the artillery sense via notion of "discharges" of electricity. In Middle English, bateri meant only "forged metal ware." In obsolete baseball jargon battery was the word for "pitcher and catcher" considered as a unit (1867, originally only the pitcher).
双语例句
1. The battery in my car gave up the ghost.
我的汽车电池报废了。
来自柯林斯例句
2. He is using your mains electricity to recharge his car battery.
他在用你家里的电源给他的车载蓄电池充电。
来自柯林斯例句
3. Crack is part of a battery of drugs used by addicts.
强效可卡因是瘾君子们吸食的众多毒品之一。
来自柯林斯例句
4. We give a battery of tests to each patient.
我们给每个病人都做了一系列的检查。
来自柯林斯例句
5. I thought it looked as though the battery was going.
