I’m finding this a very interesting word. As I see it, there are four main usages:
The crime of landing a blow, knife thrust, etc. in an assault.
An array of cannon or artillery taken as a unit.
The location where such an array is or used to be located, as in the Battery in southern Manhattan or downtown Charleston
A device for storing electrical charge and supplying it as needed, as in an automobile or flashlight battery.
Definition #3 is obviously derived from #2. And the first three seem to have some connection with the verb “to batter”, a battery at law being a battering during an assault, and the function of the cannon or artillery being to batter the opponents. But I don’t see how the fourth definition fits with the others, or what the etymological sequence might be. Anyone want to try to sort out the connections, if any, between the differing meanings?
…I think. This guy seems to place its first usage around 1800, although the wiki link cites a letter from 1749 written by Benjamin Franklin referring to a battery as a collection (of jars)
IAmNotSpartacus may be shooting from the hip, but he’s right. It’s an array, similar to #2.
A flashlight battery (C or D) isn’t actually a battery. It’s a cell. A 6 volt lantern battery is a battery. If you open up a square lantern battery you’ll find that it has four round cells inside of it, that are about the same width as a C cell but are longer (they are F cells in case you were wondering).
Likewise, a 9 volt battery is an array of smaller cells, all packed into one container. They can either be tiny cylinders with little tabs joining them together, or they can be these little squarish things all stacked on top of each other, but there’s six of them inside of a 9 volt. Each cell in a 9 volt is 1.5 volts, same as the cell voltage for a AA, AAA, C, or D cell. The chemistry of the cell determines its voltage. If you need more volts, you combine cells into batteries.
Good luck trying to convince people that AA, AAA, C, and D batteries aren’t batteries though. That’s what everyone calls them.
(ETA: IAmNotSpartacus’s second post wasn’t there when I typed this)
#4 is derived from, and analogous to, #2. In proper technical usage, a AA “battery” is not a battery, it is a cell. A 9-volt battery, however, is indeed a battery (and is not a cell), as it is an array of six AAAA (yes, four “A’s”) cells. Likewise, a 12-volt automotive battery is composed of six cells, and a 6-volt lantern battery has four F cells. It is the common (mis)use of “battery” for “cell” that obscures the obvious parallel between #4 and #2.
ETA: I didn’t see engineer_comp_geek’s post before I submitted.
I think the origin of the term “battery” for the electrical device is a shortening of the phrase “battery of cells”, using “battery” to mean a plurality or group. It was the term “cells” that conveyed the idea that electrochemical cells were the things that were grouped. Before the phrase was shortened through use, “battery” wouldn’t have implied anything about electricity.
The dictionary I have to hand seems to trace both ‘batter’ (in every sense) and ‘battery’ (again, in every sense) back to the Latin word batuere, meaning ‘to strike or beat’. My guess is that a battery of cannon was named for how it beat on the enemy and the other ‘plurality’ senses derived from that in an obvious fashion.
Online Etymology says in part " … “unit of artillery” (a sense recorded in Eng. from 1555). Extension to “electrical cell” (1748, first used by Ben Franklin) is perhaps via notion of “discharges” of electricity … ".
#8 in drum & bugle corps (DCI corps) the percussion section is usually divided into two parts, the “pit” contains the large, immobile instruments (e.g. marimba) and the musicians generally don’t march, the “battery” refers to the on-the-field, marching percussion(ists).
an electrochemical battery stated as a collection of cells, there weren’t needs or uses for single cells. while referring to a single cell as a battery doesn’t agree with its original electrochemical usage, i don’t think it is a misuse of the term. the definition of the word has formally changed in that context, just as new words get created so can definitions change. though you will find the term ‘single cell battery’ sometimes used to refer to them where it is a single cell.
And of course this derives from the same root meaning of ‘striking a blow’, because to make a fish-n-chips-batter, you need to beat the eggs and milk together.
