“Why in hell is Papa Mars still carrying a weapon?” 27 March 1868
16 March 2026
The verb to weaponize (weapon + -ize) literally means to turn something into an armament. It also has a figurative meaning of using something to undermine, criticize, or oppose others. And accompanying the verb is the adjective weaponized. The words came into widespread use during the Cold War between the United States and Soviet Union. In particular, 1957 is when newspapers, in articles about US ballistic missile programs, started to frequently use the words in their literal sense. But there are uses of weaponize long before this.
The earliest use that I have found is in Vermont’s Rutland Daily Herald of 28 December 1871 in a letter from a traveler to Spain:
I have also observed how general is the custom among the senoritas to trim their unclipped finger-nails sharply to a point, a custom to which to say nothing of its detraction from womanly charms, is very suggestive of an intent to weaponize hands God made for caressing.
While this usage is not in reference to the military, it is a literal use of the verb, turning fingernails into weapons.
There is an odd figurative use of the verb in the Santa Barbara News-Press of 2 April 1944. It uses weaponize as an intransitive verb:
A raised eyebrow might tax your credulity, but a raised lorgnette, madame, will tax you plenty and the piper you pay is your Uncle Sam, who says that plain garden variety spectacles come under the category of necessities, but the long, single-handed optical aid that cartoonists put on grand dames, to weaponize and politely terrorize the little people, will come high.
Of course, the intent might have been to “weaponize the lorgnette,” but if so, it’s poorly phrased.
Figurative use of the adjective weaponized dates to at least 7 August 1960, when it is used in the Binghamton Press in an article about tax policy:
Nothing is sacred in the cool eyes of New York State’s increasingly weaponized tax men. Not even the traditional haphazard financial habits of boxers, wrestlers and chorus girls.
Sources:
Heavey, James. “State Tax Collector Ready for Troupers.” Binghamton Press (New York), 7 August 1960, 12-C/1.
Miss Barbara. “Town Chatter.” Santa Barbara News-Press (California), 2 April 1944, B-3/5–6. Newspapers.com.
O’Toole, Garson. “Re: [ADS-L] weaponize (1871; weaponized (1960).” ADS-L, 23 February 2026.
Oxford English Dictionary Online, December 2008, s.v. weaponize, v., weaponized, adj.
“What a Merchant Saw in Europe” (8 April 1871). Rutland Daily Herald (Vermont), 28 December 1871, 2/4. Readex: America’s Historical Newspapers.
Image credit: Arnauld de Vresse, Pierre Louis Hippolyte Destouches, and Honoré Daumier, Le Charivari, 27 March 1968. Wikimedia Commons. Public domain image.