Forms: 6 archy-, archinale, 6–7 ars-, arzenale, 6–7 arcenal, 7 -all, -el, arciarsi-, arsenall, 6– arsenal. [a. It. arze- arsenale, Sp. Pg. F. arsenal, earlier forms of which are It. arzenà (Dante), arzanà (still in use), 16–17th c. F. arsena, arsenac (see Littré), all in the current sense; cf. It. and Sp. darsena, Sicilian tirzanà (Diez), Pg. taracena, tercena, F. darse, darsine, ‘a dock’; also Sp. atarazána, atarazanál, ‘arsenal, factory, wine-cellar, etc.’ The original is the Arab. dār aççināsah, workshop, factory (i.e., dār house, place of, al the, çināsah, art, mechanical industry, f. çanasa to make, fabricate), which is directly represented by the Romance darsena, taracena; atarazana is prob. a Sp. Arab. form with article al-, ad- prefixed; arsena is either (as Diez thinks) from darsena, with d dropped (perh. by assoc. with de, d’, preposition, cf. dante, ANTE), or (as Defréméry and others hold) from aç-çināsah alone. See Dozy, and Devic in Littré’s Supp. The final -ale, -al was added in It. or Sp. The wider sense of the Arabic is retained in Sp.; the other languages have narrowed it to dock and armoury. The earliest forms in Eng. were from It., but the existing one is that common to Fr., Sp. and Pg.]
1. A dock possessing naval stores, materials, and all appliances for the reception, construction and repair of ships; a dockyard. Obs. exc. Hist.
1506. Guylforde, Pilgr. (1851), 7. At the Archynale there be closed within … an .C. galyes.
1549. Thomas, Hist. Italy (1561), 74 b. The Arsenale [at Venice] in myne eye excedeth all the rest: For there they haue well neere two hundred galeys.
1580. North, Plutarch (1676), 372. Set up an arsenal or store-house to build gallies in.
1601. Holland, Pliny, I. 175. Making the Arsenall at Athens, able to receiue 1000 ships.
1611. Coryat, Crudities, 216. I was at the Arsenall which is so called quasi ars naualis, because there is exercised the Art of making tackling and all other necessary things for shipping.
1693. Urquhart, Rabelais, III. lii. Carricks, Ships … and other vessels of his Thalassian arsenal.
1838. Arnold, Hist. Rome (1846), I. xxi. 461. Building ships, and arsenals to receive and fit them out properly.
2. A public establishment for the manufacture and storage, or for the storage alone, of weapons and ammunition of all kinds, for the military and naval forces of the country.
1579. Fenton, Guicciard., VIII. (1599), 317. A fire kindled … in their storre house called the Arzenale … where was their saltpeter.
1625. Bacon, Ess. (Arb.), 473. Stored Arcenalls and Armouries.
1660. Howell, Let. Ital. Prov., in Dict. The whole Arsenal of Venice is not able to arm a Coward.
1676. Bullokar, Arcenel, an Armoury, Storehouse of Armour or Artillery.
1727. Chambers, Cycl., s.v., The Arsenal at Paris is that where the cannon or great guns are cast.
1781. Gibbon, Decl. & F., II. 53. Offensive weapons of all sorts, and military engines, which were deposited in the arsenals.
1811. D. Lysons, Environs Lond., I. 594. The gun-wharf at Woolwich … is now called the Arsenal, or Royal Arsenal. This Arsenal is the grand depôt of the ordnance belonging to the navy.
1876. J. Thorne, Environs Lond., II. 742/1. The Royal Arsenal [Woolwich] stretches for a mile along the Thames E. of the Dockyard. It is the only arsenal in the kingdom; the smaller establishments at the other dockyards are called gun-wharfs, and receive their supplies from Woolwich.
b. fig.
1598. Sylvester, Du Bartas, I. (1633), 24. Of changefull chances common Arcenal.
1604. T. Wright, Passions Mind, V. § 4. 185. Their arcinall or storehouse of persuasiue prouission.
1643. Featly, Pref. Newman’s Concord., 1. Scripture is … the spirituall arsenall of munition.
1848. Henry A. Wise, in Daily Sentinel (Burlington, VT), 23 Dec., 2/1. But we are beaten, not by the weapons of Federalism, but by weapons stolen from the arsenal of Democracy.
1857. H. Reed, Lect. Brit. Poets, ix. 300. Weapons from the arsenal of poetic satire.
