Disarmaments

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The process of reducing or eliminating military weapons and armaments from a country or organization
2. The act of taking away the weapons from forces to promote peace and security
3. A negotiated agreement among nations to limit or dismantle their military capabilities and arsenals

Etymology: "Disarmaments" is simply the plural of "disarmament," so the history of the plural is the history of the noun itself. Its base is the verb "disarm," which comes from Old French "desarmer," meaning to strip of arms, with the "dis-" prefix reversing the sense of "arm." The noun-forming suffix "-ment" was then added to make "disarmament," the act or process of disarming. The word was modeled after "armament," a term for the weapons and military equipment a force possesses, which is why "disarmament" sounds so close to it. The result is a word that literally names the removal of that same stock of weapons. The plural form, "disarmaments," is used when speaking of several distinct arms-reduction processes or agreements, such as separate treaties or campaigns.

Synonyms: demilitarizations, arms reduction, disarmament agreements