ballista

noun

bal·​lis·​ta bə-ˈli-stə 

plural ballistae bə-ˈli-ˌstē 

: an ancient military engine often in the form of a crossbow for hurling large missiles

Examples of ballista in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

This kind of ballista dates back to 399 BCE, when King Dionysius of Syracuse besieged a walled town called Motya located on the island of Sicily. —William Gurstelle, Popular Mechanics, 6 May 2019

In human history, this old-school Godzilla-sized crossbow goes by a different name—a ballista. —William Gurstelle, Popular Mechanics, 6 May 2019

Even when her dragon yaws, pitches, and rolls after being hit by an arrow shot from Qyburn's ballista, the dainty dragon queen hangs tough in the face of the forces of physics trying to pry her loose. —William Gurstelle, Popular Mechanics, 15 Apr. 2019

Nixey delivers this ballista-bolt of a book with her eyes wide open and in an attempt to bring light as well as heat to the sad story of intellectual monoculture and religious intolerance. —Bettany Hughes, New York Times, 8 June 2018

Other artifacts were discovered during the dig as well, including ballista bolts, brooches, arrowheads, leather shoes, knives, bath clogs, writing tablets and pen and cavalry lances. —Jason Daley, Smithsonian, 14 Sep. 2017

This kind of ballista dates back to 399 BCE, when King Dionysius of Syracuse besieged a walled town called Motya located on the island of Sicily. —William Gurstelle, Popular Mechanics, 28 July 2017

These miniature plastic or metal ballistas can fire a toothpick with enough force to pierce cardboard or — if loaded up with metal needles instead of wooden skewers — a soda can, the BBC reports. —Joseph Hincks, Time, 22 June 2017

Nahshon Szanton and Moran Hagbi, the directors of the excavation, said the ballista balls were used by the Romans to bombard Jerusalem during the battle. —Chris Ciaccia, Fox News, 25 May 2017

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Word History

Etymology

Middle English baliste "crossbow, ballista," borrowed from Latin ballista, bālista "ballista," borrowed from Greek ballistḗs, presumably "thrower, military engine" (attested only as the name of a constellation in an astrological manuscript), agent derivative of ballízein "to throw, hurl" — more at ball entry 3

Note: Latin ballista is attested already in the plays of Plautus, and hence dates from the earliest period of literary Latin. It is striking that the word is unknown in the sense "military engine" in Greek, though a possible explanation lies in the distribution of the base word ballízein. It is only attested in authors from Magna Graecia, the areas of southern Italy and Sicily that were colonized by Greeks. This geographical limitation may explain both its non-occurrence elsewhere in Greek and its early transmission to Latin.

First Known Use

14th century, in the meaning defined above