General Use of The Word
The word barrage, imported from the French for "barrier" around 1915, has a very specific meaning in military circles: it denotes the artillery tactic of coordinated bombardment as a static or moving barrier, as described in this article. The word has also entered the general language, where it has come to mean any intense sequence of words or missiles – such as a barrage of questions.
Nowadays, any form of artillery fire of more than one round may be described as a barrage in general language. Even military historians use it in a non-technical sense, referring to any intense artillery fire. As an example: on April 29, 2007, Reuters reported “US Launches Barrage in Southern Baghdad”, but instead of the mass destruction and killing one would expect from a barrage in the military sense, it appears that about 24 rounds were fired, probably against point targets. This was a barrage in the general sense of ‘artillery bombardment’, but not in the military sense. As is usually the case with language, the intended meaning was clear from the context.
Read more about this topic: Barrage (artillery)
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