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Calque of Japanese武術(bujutsu), which is itself borrowed from Chinese武術 (wǔshù).
However this term has been already mentioned in Pope's Iliad (1715, 4.360), and in Sotheby's Iliad (1831, book 6).
Any of several fighting styles which contain systematized methods of training for combat, both armed and unarmed; often practiced as a sport, e.g. boxing, karate, judo, silat, wrestling, or Muay Thai.
1832, Richard Chenevix, An Essay Upon National Character: 4. On patriotism, p. 481:
of all the modes by which the advantage of his country may be secured, the martial arts and valour are those by which a Swiss the most hopes to promote it.