cartridge

Etymology

Corruption of earlier cartage, from French cartouche, from Italian cartoccio (“roll of paper”), from Medieval Latin carta (“paper”). Doublet of cartouche.

noun

1. (firearms) The package consisting of the bullet, primer, and casing containing gunpowder; a round of ammunition.
   Still, a dozen men with rifles, and cartridges to match, stayed behind when they filed through a white aldea lying silent amid the cane, and the Sin Verguenza swung into slightly quicker stride. 1907, Harold Bindloss, chapter 7, in The Dust of Conflict
2. (by extension) A prefabricated subassembly that can be easily installed in or removed from a larger mechanism or replaced with another interchangeable subassembly.
3. (computing) A vessel which contains the ink or toner for a computer printer and can be easily replaced with another.
4. (computing) Magnetic tape storage, used for storing (backup) copies of data.
   The program generates a catalogue of the files on the cartridge selected by the user, reads the catalogue into memory and erases the cartridge copy, so that an up-to-date copy is always generated. 1983, “Helpline”, in Sinclair User, number 21
5. (computing) A removable enclosure containing read-only memory devices, used for rapid loading of software onto a home computer or video game console.
   We would like to see someone market a low-power, text-to-speech cartridge that would mate with the Epson and use its internal battery pack. 1981, Communication Outlook, volume 3
   Nintendo made sure to loudly trumpet all of the advantages of the cartridge format, particularly the greatly reduced loading times and the sturdiness of the cartridges[…] 2002, Video Game Bible, 1985-2002, page 180
   Not as good, though, as the PolyStation. Looks like a first-generation PlayStation in a Nitendo 64 box. And even though that bit on top looks like it should take a disc, it actually uses something like a Super Nintendo cartridge. Jun 24 2015, “Top 10 Chinese Knockoffs of Foreign Products” (00:01:54 from the start), in China Uncensored, spoken by himself (Chris Chappell), New Tang Dynasty Television, via New Tang Dynasty Television
6. (obsolete) A small paper package, e.g. in an old book about making printer's type: After all the type has been cast: "The Boy will paper up each sort in a cartridge by itself".