Word Origin Atlas

Exact historical dictionary sense

Arms in Webster's 1913 dictionary

The 1913 record labels arms as noun. Its source-bounded etymology and selected historical definition appear below.

WEBSTER 1913noun
Arms

[OE. armes, F. arme, pl. armes, fr. L. arma, pl., arms, orig. fittings, akin to armus shoulder, and E. arm. See Arm, n.]

Cross-verified historical sense
The source text may be outdated. The page preserves that historical boundary.
Cross-verified 1913 record
Headwordarms
Part of speechnoun
Historical etymology[OE. armes, F. arme, pl. armes, fr. L. arma, pl., arms, orig. fittings, akin to armus shoulder, and E. arm. See Arm, n.]
Selected historical definitionInstruments or weapons of offense or defense.
Signed record IDwebster1913-arms-noun-db816f1721fb
Source locatorCIDE.A, paragraph 11531; Gutenberg eBook 660
Edition-scoped answerNot earliest-attestation proofNot modern consensus
Independent historical textProject Gutenberg section 660Signed structural record sourceGNU GCIDE 0.54 archive
Quick answer

In Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913), "arms" is labeled noun. Its etymology is recorded as: "[OE. armes, F. arme, pl. armes, fr. L. arma, pl., arms, orig. fittings, akin to armus shoulder, and E. arm. See Arm, n.]" The selected historical definition says: "Instruments or weapons of offense or defense."

Project Gutenberg Webster 1913 plus signed GNU GCIDE 0.54 Exact cross-verified historical record reviewed 2026-10-04

What this answer proves

One named sense in one historical dictionary edition.

The answer reports the selected headword, part of speech, etymology, definition, and source locator as transcribed in the cross-verified 1913 record.

Evidence boundaryIt does not establish the earliest attestation or a complete borrowing chain.It does not claim current scholarly consensus or a modern dictionary definition.Historical dictionary text may be obsolete, incomplete, inaccurate, or offensive by modern standards.

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