1530s, "action of battering," in law, "the unlawful beating of another," from French batterie, from Old French baterie "beating, thrashing, assault" (12c.), from batre "to beat," from Latin battuere (see batter (v.)).
The meaning shifted in French from "bombardment" ("heavy blows" upon city walls or fortresses) to "unit of artillery" (a sense recorded in English from 1550s). The extension to "electrical cell" (1748, in Ben Franklin) is perhaps from the artillery sense via notion of "discharges" of electricity. In Middle English, bateri meant only "forged metal ware." In obsolete baseball jargon battery was the word for "pitcher and catcher" considered as a unit (1867, originally only the pitcher).
c. 1600, "buzzing insect," agent noun from buzz (v.). Used 1870s in Britain of steam-powered whistles used to call or dismiss factory workers. In reference to electricity-powered mechanical devices that buzz, from 1882.
"to supply with power," 1898, from power (n.). Earlier it meant "make powerful" (1530s). Related: Powered; powering.
1839, "apparatus for reversing the currents from a battery without rearranging the conductors," agent noun from Latin commutare (see commute (v.)). From 1880 as "contrivance for varying the strength of an electric current."
person or thing that blends, 1872 (as a type of artist's brush), agent noun from blend (v.). As a type of electric-powered food processor, from 1942.
"person who intimidates others by threats or violence," 1876, agent noun from bulldoze (q.v.). The sense was extended to "an engine-powered ground-clearing caterpillar tractor" in 1930.
