Arsenal: A Weapons Store, a Football Club, and a Venetian Shipyard
An arsenal is a place where weapons are made or stored, and by extension any collection of resources. The word comes from Arabic by way of the Venice shipyards.
An arsenal is a store of weapons, or the building where they are made and kept. Figuratively it is any set of resources someone can draw on: *an arsenal of arguments*, *an arsenal of spin bowlers*.
- A weapons store or factory. *The raid uncovered a small arsenal.*
- A country's total weaponry. *The nuclear arsenal was reduced by treaty.*
- A collection of resources (figurative). *She has an arsenal of tactics.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Noun | arsenal | A hidden arsenal. |
| Plural | arsenals | The two arsenals were compared. |
| Related | armoury | Armoury is the more common British word for a small store. |
| Related | ordnance | Ordnance means military supplies and artillery. |
How it is used in a sentence
- Police found an arsenal of illegal firearms.The literal sense.
- The treaty cut both nuclear arsenals by a third.National weaponry.
- Patience is the best weapon in his arsenal.Figurative and very common in sport.
From a Venetian shipyard to a London football club
From Arabic *dār aṣ-ṣināʿa*, house of manufacture, which became Venetian *arzanà* — the great shipyard of Venice, the Arsenale, where galleys were built on something close to a production line. English borrowed it for weapons stores. The football club took the name because it was founded by workers at the Royal Arsenal in Woolwich.
Arsenal or armoury?
An armoury is usually a smaller store, often within a building; an arsenal can be a whole complex including manufacture. In American English arsenal is the more common word.
Why is Venice's shipyard famous?
At its height the Arsenale could assemble a ship in a day using standardised parts, centuries before industrial mass production.