Other forms: cartridges
A cartridge is a sealed container that slots into a machine. Ink cartridge, replace the cartridge, a gas cartridge.
The point is that it is exchanged whole rather than refilled, which is convenient for the user and profitable for the maker — printer ink is famously among the most expensive liquids by volume anybody buys. It also names ammunition, where a cartridge holds primer, propellant and bullet in one case. Note cartridge paper, a heavy drawing paper originally made for wrapping charges.
1nouncartridgeA sealed container that slots into a machine.
“The printer has run out of ink, so I need a new cartridge.”
2nounroundA round of ammunition in one case.
“The hunter loaded two cartridges into his shotgun.”
cartridge is a sealed container.
French cartouche comes from Italian cartoccio, a roll of paper, from Latin carta. The first cartridges really were paper rolls holding a measured charge of powder.
Medieval Latin
carta — paper
Italian
cartoccio — roll of paper
French
cartouche
English, today
cartridge
Corruption of earlier cartage, from French cartouche, from Italian cartoccio (“roll of paper”), from Medieval Latin carta (“paper”). a doublet of cartouche.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA