Armbrust

Etymology
From  (12th century, variants armbrost, armborst, armbrast, armbst), from, from , from  +  (compare 🇨🇬); modified, possibly by folk etymology, but as Grimm notes, the German noun was neuter well into the early modern period which excludes direct interpretation as a compound.

The feminine gender became predominant in the 18th century, clearly motivated by popular etymology as a compound in -, also made explicit in hyphenated spelling Arm-Brust. Gottsched (1748) suggested a derivation from, in which he was followed by Boeheim (1890).

Noun

 * 1) crossbow, arbalest