The term howitzer, referring to a type of cannon, was first introduced into the English language in a 1695 edition of the London Gazette, spelled as hauwitzer. Throughout the 1700s, it had various spellings such as hautvitzer, hautwitzer, hawitzer, hawbitzer, hobitzer, and haubitzer, before settling on its modern form in the nineteenth century. Its origins can be traced back to the German word Haubitze, derived from the Czech word houfnice, which means “catapult” (introduced to the Germans during the Hussite Wars in the 1400s). The suffix -nice was added for nominal purposes, with the root being houf, typically translating to “crowd” but in this context meaning “heap” (referring to the catapult’s payload). This can be traced back to Proto-Germanic haupaz and Proto-Indo-European hupo, both with similar meanings.
