Editing Trebuchet (section)

==Etymology and terminology==
{{stack|[[File:Roman Onager.jpg|thumb|The [[Onager (weapon)|onager]] was a torsion powered weapon used in Europe from the [[4th century|4th]] until the [[6th century]] AD.]]}}

The numerous forms of the word that appeared during the [[13th century]], including ''trabocco'', ''tribok'', ''tribuclietta'', and ''trubechetum'', have obscured the origin of the term.{{sfn|Fulton|2018|p=33-34}} In Arabic the counterweight trebuchet was called ''manjaniq maghribi'' or ''majaniq ifranji''.{{sfn|Fulton|2018|p=37}} In China it was called the ''húihúi pào'' (Muslim trebuchet).{{sfn|Needham|1994|p=221}}

The English word ''trebuchet'' is first mentioned in the 14th century (13th century in Anglo-Latin) as "medieval stone-throwing engine of war".<ref name="EO">[https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=trebuchet Etymology Online : ''trebuchet'']</ref> It is borrowed from (Old) French ''trebuchet'' (now ''trébuchet'').<ref name="EO"/>

The French word is from the verbal root of ''trebucher'' (now ''trébucher'') : ''trebuch-'' + diminutive noun suffix ''-et'', ''trebucher'' (10th century) meant "to overthrow, to bring down", then and now "to stumble",<ref name="CNRTL2">[https://www.cnrtl.fr/etymologie/trébucher CNRTL : ''trébucher'' (read online in French)]</ref> maybe earlier "to rock" or "to tilt".{{sfn|Fulton|2018|p=33}} It is a compound of (Old) French ''tre(s)-'',<ref name="CNRTL2"/> variant form ''tra-'' (now ''tré-'' / ''tra-'') from Latin ''trans'' expressing "displacement" in that case + Old French ''buc'' "trunk of the body, bulk",<ref name="EO"/><ref name="CNRTL2"/> itself from [[Old Low Franconian]] ''*būk-'' "belly"<ref name="CNRTL2"/> similar to Old High German ''buh'',<ref name="CNRTL2"/> German ''Bauch'' "belly".<ref name="EO"/>

The earliest appearance of the term "trebuchet" in French dates to the late [[12th century]] and the first attestations of ''trebuchet'' as a siege weapon are from around the year 1200.{{sfn|Fulton|2018|p=33}}{{sfn|Sayers|2023|p=91}} The 1174-77 edition of ''[[Roman de Renart]]'', an epic about ''Renard the Fox'', describes it as a "trap whose trigger mechanism consists of an assembly of balanced logs" (understood as animal trap by 1375) while the ca. 1200 edition describes it as a "war engine that throws stones to break down walls".<ref name="CNRTL1">[https://www.cnrtl.fr/etymologie/trébuchet CNRTL : ''trébuchet'' (read online in French)]</ref><ref name="RBT">''Dictionnaire historique de la langue française'', sous la direction d'[[Alain Rey]], Editions [[Le Robert]], p. 3738b</ref>{{sfn|Sayers|2023|p=91}} The word ''trabuchellus'' appeared alongside ''manganum'' and ''prederia'' in a document in [[Vicenza]] on {{start date and age|1189|4|6|df=y|paren=y}}. ''Trabucha'' is found a decade later with ''predariae'' at the siege of [[Castelnuovo Bocca d'Adda]] in an account by [[Iohannes Codagnellus]]. It is unclear, however, whether these referred to counterweight trebuchets. Codagnellus did not specify a specific type of engine with the term and even implied that they were "fairly light in subsequent references".{{sfn|Fulton|2018|p=33}} Only in the late 1210s do variations of "trebuchet" in sources, described as increasingly powerful machines or utilizing different components, identify more closely with the counterweight trebuchet.{{sfn|Fulton|2018|p=34-35}} Other terms, such as ''machina maior/magna'', might have also referred to counterweight trebuchets.{{sfn|Fulton|2016a|p=21}}

''Traction trebuchet'' and ''counterweight trebuchet'' are modern terms ([[retronym]]s), not used by contemporary users of the weapons. The term ''traction trebuchet'' was created mainly to distinguish this type of weapon from the ''[[Onager (weapon)|onager]]'', a torsion powered catapult that is often conflated in contemporary sources with the ''mangonel'', which was used as a generic term for any medieval stone throwing artillery. Both the traction and counterweight trebuchets have been called ''mangonel'' at one point or another. Confusion between the onager, mangonel, trebuchet, and other catapult types in contemporary terminology has led some historians today to use the more precise ''traction trebuchet'' instead, with ''counterweight trebuchet'' used to distinguish what was before called simply a ''trebuchet''.{{sfn|Purton|2009|p=365}}{{sfn|Purton|2009|p=410}} Some modern historians use ''mangonel'' to mean exclusively traction trebuchets, while others call traction trebuchets ''traction mangonels'' and counterweight trebuchets ''counterweight mangonels''.{{sfn|Nicolle|2003|p=17}}