Etymology

martial art

Today it means: Any of several fighting styles which contain systematized methods of training for combat, both armed and unarmed; often practiced as a sport, e.g. boxing, karate, judo, silat, wrestling, or Muay Thai. Full definition →

Japanese 武術 ← Chinese 武術 /武术
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The story

  1. Chinese · derived from武術 /武术
  2. Japanese · calque of武術
  3. English todaymartial art

Calque of Japanese 武術 (bujutsu), which is itself borrowed from Chinese 武術 /武术 (wǔshù). However, the term had been already mentioned in Pope's Iliad (1715, 4.360), and in Sotheby's Iliad (1831, book 6).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.