Etymology

poliorcetics

po·li·or·ce·tics
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Today it means: The art of siege warfare, namely, that of conducting or resisting a siege. Full definition →

Late Latin poliorcetica ← Koine Greek πολιορκητικά ← Ancient Greek πολῐορκέω
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The story

  1. Ancient Greek · derived fromπολῐορκέω“to besiege, blockade”
  2. Koine Greek · derived fromπολιορκητικά“things related to sieges”
  3. Late Latin · borrowed frompoliorcetica“siege engines”
  4. English todaypoliorcetics

Partly: * borrowed from Late Latin poliorcetica (“siege engines”) + English -s (suffix forming pluralia tantum) (poliorcetica is derived from Koine Greek πολιορκητικά (poliorkētiká, “things related to sieges”), the neuter plural of πολιορκητικός (poliorkētikós, “relating to poliorcetics, poliorcetic”), from Ancient Greek πολῐορκέω (polĭorkéō, “to besiege, blockade”) (from πόλις (pólis, “city”) + ἕρκος (hérkos, “enclosure; fence”)) + -τῐκός (-tĭkós, suffix forming adjectives meaning ‘of or relating to’)); and * from poliorcetic (“relating to poliorcetics”) + -s (suffix forming pluralia tantum).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.