armada

The word 'armada' is a direct borrowing from Spanish, where it originally meant "armed force." Its Spanish form derives from the Medieval Latin 'armata', the feminine past participle of 'armare' meaning "to arm." This Latin verb, in turn, comes from the noun 'arma' (tools, arms, weapons), which is of Proto-Indo-European origin, related to the concept of joining or fitting together. The term entered English in the late 16th century, famously associated with the Spanish Armada, and its meaning narrowed to specifically denote a large fleet of warships.

Structure: arm (weapon) + ada (noun suffix) 'arm' originates from Latin 'arma' (weapons, tools of war). 'ada' is a suffix of Spanish origin, forming collective nouns.