What is martial arts?

So, I searched merriam-webster dict. and this is what they gave me:

• 
  
• Main Entry: martial art
• Function: noun
• Date: 1928

: any of several arts of combat and self defense (as karate and judo) that are widely practiced as sport

Roughly, that is the idea, although I'd like to minus the 'sport' part.

Martial art deals with movements and techniques designed for defending one-self by means of physical force.

Ancient illustration of self-defence techniques

I bolded out 'defending', mainly because martial arts true purpose is self-defence.

In the older days, technology isn't as great as today and people relied on strength a lot more than we rely on KTM. =p So, to ward off evil do-ers, people back then decided to fight fire with fire, but minus the aggresion. From there martial arts grew according to custom, race and needs of the people with the basic principle of 'Fight not, unless needed to'.

I'll get more on this topic next post.

See ya.