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Here I go again with another query about how the real world (outside the USA) uses a word. Hereabouts, the term, "battery" seems to mean any electric cell or group of cells, whereas its original meaning indicates a group of two or more cells linked together. How is it elsewhere? My curmudgeonly self rebels against this loose usage, but I'm being overwhelmed by popular usage. HELP! BTW, I do understand that two or more people linked together can lead to battery, but I'm not assailing that definition. 
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It also means a group/set of drums. When you are feeling particularly fiendish, giving the son of your friends a battery set for his birthday can be considered assault with battery.
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And then Bel, there is "batterie de cuisine", which is used in English as a more chichi term than "kitchen tool set".
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>My curmudgeonly self rebels against this loose usage...
so, do you want to go back to Leyden jars then? (that was the first electrical battery, and that usage stems from the artillery battery, and that usage stems from...)
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Geoff: While it is strictly true that battery means more than one battery, in the real world more than one is two and two is a pair. Hence a pair of battery is actually two batteries. Do you feel better now?  But your posting brings to mind a much more serious linguistic offence, namely, the battery upon the word "assault". Strictly speaking, an "assault" is an attempt to commit a "battery", or the threat of a "battery", not a "battery" itself.
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This-here barrister is embarrassed. I was about to correct plutarch, saying he had the above reversed -- when I thought to LIU. Plut's 100% correct; I erred. Thanks, plut!
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100% correct
Then I am failing to understand sumpin'!
as·sault (ə-sôlt')
n.
A violent physical or verbal attack.
A military attack, such as one launched against a fortified area or place.
The concluding stage of an attack in which close combat occurs with the enemy.
Law.
An unlawful threat or attempt to do bodily injury to another.
The act or an instance of unlawfully threatening or attempting to injure another.
Law. Sexual assault.
The crime of rape.
v., -sault·ed, -sault·ing, -saults.
v.tr.
To make an assault upon; attack. See synonyms at attack.
To rape.
v.intr.
To make an assault.
[Middle English assaut, from Old French, from Vulgar Latin *assaltus, variant of Latin assultus, from past participle of assilīre, to jump on. See assail.]
as·sault'er n.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Now, the way I understand that lil' lot is that an assault can be a verbal offence, a military assault on say a battery of guns would be an actual physical attack; and a legal assualt can be either the actual or threatened attack; or indeed a sexual attack. In short, assault can be an attack enacted in words, threat, or actions.
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mav, perhaps the legal definition is more carefully circumscribed. I'll re-check the law dictionary tonight, but as I recall from this morning:
Assault is in rough terms the threatening (not necessarily consummated) of a physical attack, thus the "putting the other party in fear". (The harm threatened must be physical harm to the person, not to his property, feelings or reputation.) As you note, the threat may be conveyed either physically (the raised fist) or verbally ("I'm gonna kill you"). The threat, even if not consummated, can be used to coerce or extort. Indeed, even if the attacker is merely bluffing, with no intention to follow through with his threat, he commits assault by striking fear into the heart of the other party. (Note that by virtue of the above, "assault" is not synonymous with "attempted battery".)
Battery is the implementation of that threat -- or, without any warning threat, the actual doing of physical violence to the person. The general wisdom, perhaps not 100% accurate, is that a battery always includes an assault, but not vice versa.
EDIT: I am speaking only of the common law definition. Indivdual states and other political jurisdictions each have specific and varied definitions.
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Then I am failing to understand sumpin'!
as·sault (ə-sôlt')
n.
A violent physical or verbal attack.
Mav, i think plut and keiva are speaking from a strictly legal perspective. Common usage (and common sense) would certainly agree with assault as described in the AHD, but the Criminal Code provides as follows:
PENAL CODE Section 240: An assault is an unlawful attempt, coupled with a present ability, to commit a violent injury on the person of another.[E.A.]
further,
PC§220: Every person who assaults another with intent to commit mayhem, rape, sodomy, oral copulation, or any violation of Section 264.1, 288 or 289 is punishable by imprisonment in the state prison for two, four, or six years.[E.A.]
As an aside to the lawyers among us, it's been a decade since i TA'd an evidence class in college, so my memory's hazy, but i don't recall seeing this:
PC§222. Every person guilty of administering to another any chloroform, ether, laudanum, or any controlled substance, anaesthetic, or intoxicating agent, with intent thereby to enable or assist himself or herself or any other person to commit a felony, is guilty of a felony.
Was this added recently, in response to the rohypnol craze?
EDIT: *sigh*.... 44 seconds
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While it is strictly true that battery means more than one battery,Were I your schoolmistress, I would rap your knuckles and exclaim, "A battery is two or more of something; a single cell/gun emplacement/drum/pot de cuisine/pot de chambre/lawyer, etc, is not a battery!" (AnnaStrophic, may I borrow one of your "harrumph" emoticons?)  Strictly speaking, an "assault" is an attempt to commit a "battery", or the threat of a "battery", not a
"battery" itself.Indeed. Hence the title of this thread. I am attempting to assail the American usage of battery. Oh, and Keiva, I much prefer Van de Graff generators, or rubbing a cat's fur with an amber rod! It's the one and only use I can imagine for a cat.  Elvis is dead, but Nikola Tesla lives!!!
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