hardware

Etymology

From Middle English hardware; equivalent to hard + -ware; attested since the mid-15th century.

noun

1. Fixtures, equipment, tools and devices used for general-purpose construction and repair of a structure or object. Also such equipment as sold as stock by a store of the same name, e.g. hardware store.
   He needed a hammer, nails, screws, nuts, bolts and other assorted hardware, so he went to the hardware store.
2. (informal) Equipment.
   military hardware
   BOWEN: The monster trucks of Mars rovers, joke scientists, equipped with an array of sophisticated hardware to look for signs of water and answer scientists questions. June 6, 2003, “Mission to Mars”, in CBS_Rather
   It is one thing to see an intercooler as a simple entry in a textbook, but to witness the actual hardware as it crawled down the road was awe-inspiring. 2009 May, Lee S. Langston, “plowing new ground.”, in Mechanical Engineering, volume 131, number 5, page 40
   Smaller, turbocharged engines are one way to increase engine efficiency by 8 to 10 percent, but the extra hardware is expensive. 2011 January, “Swedish Sportster”, in Popular Mechanics, volume 188, number 1, page 27
3. (computing) The part of a computer that is fixed and cannot be altered without replacement or physical modification; motherboard, expansion cards, etc. Compare software.
   Hardware is the generally accepted colloquism for anything inside a computer other than an engineer. 1952, R.L. Michaelson, “Binary Arithmetic”, in The Incorporated Statistician, volume 3, number 1 (Feb. 1952), pages 35–40
4. (technology) Electronic equipment.
5. Metal implements.
   The designers have put their logo on the hardware of this bag here.
6. (slang) A firearm.
7. (slang) Medals or trophies.
8. (Philippines) Short for hardware store.