catapultæ

Noun

catapulta (plural catapultae or catapultæ)

1. A Roman catapult (weapon for launching projectiles).
   • The projectile machines, or antient artillery, used by our ancestors about the time of the Norman invasion, were the scorpion, catapulta, balista, and onager of the Romans, with divers other species of the same machines, under a variety of different appellations.1801, Francis Grose, chapter 12, in A History of the English Army, volume 1, page 366