carroballista

Latin

Etymology

From carrus (“cart”) +‎ ballista.

Noun

carroballista f (genitive carroballistae); first declension

1. A ballista mounted on a cart.
   • 4th-5th c., Publius Flavius Vegetius Renatus, De Re Militari 2:24

     Carroballistas aliquanto maiores — hae enim longius et uehementius spicula dirigunt — superpositas curriculis cum binis equis uel mulis post aciem conuenit ordinari, et, cum sub ictum teli accesserint, bestiae sagittis ballistariis transfiguntur.

     It is suitable for the rather larger ballistas on carts — which indeed shoot javelins farther and more forcefully — to be arranged placed on tracks behind the line of battle drawn by horses or mules in pairs, and, when one [elephant] might approach before the impact of the missile, the beasts are shot through by ballista arrows.

Declension

First-declension noun.

	singular	plural
nominative	carroballista	carroballistae
genitive	carroballistae	carroballistārum
dative	carroballistae	carroballistīs
accusative	carroballistam	carroballistās
ablative	carroballistā	carroballistīs
vocative	carroballista	carroballistae

References

• “carroballista”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• carroballista in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.