Armbrust

From Middle High German armbrust (12th century, variants armbrost, armborst, armbrast, armbst), from Medieval Latin arbalista, from Late Latin arcuballista, from Latin arcus (“bow”) + ballista (“ancient military engine for hurling missiles”) (compare English arbalest); modified, possibly by folk etymology, but as Grimm notes, the German noun was neuter well into the early modern period which excludes direct interpretation as a compound Arm (“arm”) +‎ Brust (“breast”).

The feminine gender became predominant in the 18th century, clearly motivated by popular etymology as a compound in -Brust, also made explicit in hyphenated spelling Arm-Brust. Gottsched (1748) suggested a derivation from Arm (“arm”) +‎ Rüstung (“armament, armour”), in which he was followed by Boeheim (1890).

• IPA^(key): /ˈarmbrʊst/

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Armbrust f (genitive Armbrust, plural Armbrüste or Armbruste)

1. crossbow, arbalest
   • 1792, C. Meiners, L. I. Spittler, Neues Göttingisches Historisches Magazin, vol. 1, part 2, page 305:

     Zu den Waffen, die nicht allen Teutschen Völkern gemein, sondern nur gewissen Stämmen derselben eigenthümlich waren, gehörte die Armbrust.

     The crossbow was one of the weapons that were not common to all German peoples, but peculiar only to certain tribes.

• Armbrustschütze

• “Armbrust” in Duden online
• “Armbrust” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache