In WWI when tanks were being developed, they were first thought of landships. Kinda like a battleship that rolled on the land.

The Brits chose the rather commonplace name of tank to keep it a secret about what they were developing. "Oh, this here we are making... oh it's just a tank. Nothing interesting, move along now". Eventually the fake name became the real name through common use.

I sometimes wish the name Landship stuck.

Looking at the bohemiths of WWI, they kinda would look like a ship flowing over the mud with port and starboard guns aiming out the sides. Here is a picture of one show using a banana (when it was not so ripe) for scale: