The article presents the results of the study of the etymology of the basic concepts of armored terminology (on the material of the English and Russian languages). On the basis of the etymological studies of English terminology in the field of tank engineering, the author analyses the concepts of this sphere (“caterpillar”, “tower”) describing different versions of the origin of words as components of the lexical composition of armoured terminology. The results of this work are an important part of the study of the etymology of military terms as a characteristic feature of a certain historical phenomenon.