The English word "howitzer" comes from the Czech word "houfnice",[1][2][3] from houf,

"crowd",[4][5][6] and houf is in turn a borrowing from the Middle High

German word Hūfe or Houfe (modern German Haufen), meaning "heap". Haufen,
sometimes in the compound Gewalthaufen, also designated a pike square formation
in German.[citation needed]
In the Hussite Wars of the 1420s and 1430s, the Czechs used short barreled
"houfnice" cannons[7] to fire at short distances into crowds of infantry, or into
charging heavy cavalry, to make horses shy away.[8] The word was rendered into
German as aufeniz in the earliest attested use in a document dating from 1440; later
German renderings include haussnitz and, eventually haubitze, from which derive
the Scandinavian haubits, Croatian, Polish and Serbian haubica, Finnish haupitsi, Ru
ssian and Bulgarian gaubitsa
(гаубица), Italian obice, Spanishobús, Portuguese obus, French obusier and
the Dutch word houwitser, which led to the English word howitzer.[citation needed]
Since the First World War, the word "howitzer" has been increasingly used to
describe artillery pieces that, strictly speaking, belong to the category of gun-
howitzers – relatively long barrels and high muzzle velocities combined with multiple
propelling charges and high maximum elevations. This is particularly true in
the armed forces of the United States, where gun-howitzers have been officially
described as "howitzers" for more than sixty years. Because of this practice, the
word "howitzer" is used in some armies as a generic term for any kind of artillery
piece that is designed to attack targets using indirect fire. Thus, artillery pieces that
bear little resemblance to howitzers of earlier eras are now described as howitzers,
although the British call them guns. Most other armies in the world reserve the word
"howitzer" for guns with barrel lengths 15 to 25 times their caliber, with longer-
barreled guns being termed "cannons".[citation needed]
The British had a further method of nomenclature. In the 18th century, they adopted
projectile weight for guns replacing an older naming system (such as culverin, saker,
etc.)[9] that had developed in the late 15th century. Mortars had been categorized by
calibre in inches in the 17th century and this was inherited by howitzers.[10]
Current U.S. military doctrine defines howitzers as any cannon artillery capable of
high-angle (45° to 90° elevation) and low-angle (45° to 0° elevation) fire; guns are
defined as being only capable of low-angle fire, and mortars only capable of high-
angle fire.[11]