Old Archery sayings
Ken Ness
use today but have their roots in archery. This is for use as part of a
display for a public Have-a-go our club is holding. Any (preferably) clean
offerings would be appreciated.
Thanks
Ken Ness
gwynn
geeb...@NOSPAMntlworld.com
"Ken Ness" <Kn...@btopenworld.com> wrote in message
news:adu1tq$drd$1...@helle.btinternet.com...
I'll start with.......
Playing fast and loose
Another string to your bow
A bolt from the blue
hippy
the two-fingered salute.
I think it originated when because the french used to cut off the drawing fingers
of english archers. In battle, english archers would then give them the two fingers
salute to show them they had not been caught.
hip
"gwynn" <geeb...@ntlworld.com> wrote in message news:%sxM8.6021$tm.9...@news6-win.server.ntlworld.com...
John Howland
Some need Training wheels <G>...
--
-----
John Howland
-----
"Ken Ness" <Kn...@btopenworld.com> wrote in message
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Peter S. Saly
"gwynn" <geeb...@ntlworld.com> wrote in message
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>
>
A bolt from the blue would be more a "crossbow" term..
Not archery according to some purits..
:-)
Tom Duncan
Keep it under your hat - as in, to keep a spare string under your had so
that it would stay dry. Mainly a medieval problem before the advent of
waxed fastflight.
Tom
--
These Five Words In My Head
Scream "Are We Having Fun Yet?"
the...@webtv.net
Jim McPhail
Not a saying, but I've been wondering recently if the "thumbs up" sign has
its roots in archery.
After all, a "fistmele" (bracing height distance for a longbow) is very
similar. I was wondering if perhaps giving the "thumbs up" was originally a
signal that you were ready to shoot?
-Mac
Jim McPhail
Also, I recently found out that bluebell flowers were not originally native
to Britain, but were in fact introduced (from the Americas, I think) because
the roots can be ground up to make a glue which was used for sticking
arrowheads to arrows (for longbows) back in medieval times.
-Mac
Peter S. Saly
"Jim McPhail" <m...@jmcphail.freeserve.co.uk> wrote in message
news:ae03t6$j6b$1...@newsg4.svr.pol.co.uk...
Uh !
Back in medieval times, there was no documented trade between England and
the Americas...
Do you know something that the rest of the world does not ?
Jim McPhail
"Peter S. Saly" <Pe...@Saly.com> wrote in message
news:ug77o03...@corp.supernews.com...
<snip>
> Uh !
> Back in medieval times, there was no documented trade between England and
> the Americas...
> Do you know something that the rest of the world does not ?
Yes......
Your mum.
-Mac
Peter S. Saly
>
> "Peter S. Saly" <Pe...@Saly.com> wrote in message
> news:ug77o03...@corp.supernews.com...
> >> <snip replaced
> >> "Jim McPhail" <m...@jmcphail.freeserve.co.uk> wrote in message
news:ae03t6$j6b$1...@newsg4.svr.pol.co.uk...
> >> Sorry for the double post........
> >>
> >> Also, I recently found out that bluebell flowers were not originally
native
> >> to Britain, but were in fact introduced (from the Americas, I think)
because
> >> the roots can be ground up to make a glue which was used for sticking
> >> arrowheads to arrows (for longbows) back in medieval times.
> >>
> >> -Mac
> >>
> >>
> >
> > Uh !
> > Back in medieval times, there was no documented trade between England
and
> > the Americas...
> > Do you know something that the rest of the world does not ?
>
>
> Yes......
>
> Your mum.
>
> -Mac
>
>
Interesting that a cheap insult is the only way you have to cover your
mistake..
Tells a lot about you
As to my mother
She doesn't know wanking knob-suckers like you..
But fantasize on..
I'ts the only way dog's vomit like you will ever get anywhere near
quality..
gwynn
geeb...@NOSPAMntlworld.com
(for posting remove NOSPAM)
"hippy" <REMOVE_...@bigpond.com> wrote in message
news:hLxM8.275892$o66.7...@news-server.bigpond.net.au...
> Maybe not so clean (it's all in the delivery), but the obvious one to me
would be
> the two-fingered salute.
> I think it originated when because the french used to cut off the drawing
fingers
> of english archers. In battle, english archers would then give them the
two fingers
> salute to show them they had not been caught.
> hip
So the story goes, and I like to believe it but then we were having a natter
over that, as you do, and decided it wouldn't do much good as you would be
able to shoot (eventually) other handed. It would make more sense to take
the thumb as well, then you would be well buggered. Of course it makes even
more sense to kill the archer straight off rather than mess about removing
digits ! But then I wouldn't put anything past the French.......
gwynn
"gwynn" <geeb...@ntlworld.com> wrote in message
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>
>
And of course I forgot "going for gold"
Jim McPhail
"Peter S. Saly" <Pe...@Saly.com> wrote in message
<snip lamer rant>
PLONK.
Peter S. Saly
>
"Peter S. Saly" <Pe...@Saly.com> wrote in message
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>
> "Jim McPhail" <m...@jmcphail.freeserve.co.uk> wrote in message
> news:ae2jsi$clo$1...@newsg3.svr.pol.co.uk...
> >
> > "Peter S. Saly" <Pe...@Saly.com> wrote in message
> PLONK.
>
>
LOL..
Another one who likes to insult but can't take it..
John Grove
Bluebell roots to repair arrows the night before the battle. Agincourt
in 1415 was a long time before Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 1492
However you are right in that Bluebells are not a native species but
were introduced for arrow making glue.
How about "fast and loose" for a saying?
--
John Grove
Richard
refers to the wayward shot resulting from getting the cock feather the wrong
way up?
Cheers
Richard
Tom Duncan
I'm going to be picky now ;-)
If it was cock feather up (or even down) then it must have been a
compound related phrase, and so not so old? Getting confused between
left and right would make it a finger release thing, and so closer to
traditional style of archery. Of course, if you have really thin carbons
from a compound, there's not much choice but cock feather up. (Or is
there? I haven't really been paying attention to new developments in
compound, besides the advent of the 27" ATA bow - these things are
getting ludicrously short.)
End ramble.
Ken Ness
"Peter S. Saly" <Pe...@Saly.com> wrote in message
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Mike Anthony
action? "Brace yourselves"
Also - and I'm really not sure about this one - a "thumbs up" sign coming
from the habit of checking a longbows bracing height with a fistmele. If
the string touches your thumb tip, its OK. And before anyone says anything,
no, it doesn't come from ancient Rome and the gladiatorial games, i.e.
"thumbs up" for life and "thumbs down" for death, that's a later Hollywood
invention.
Cheers
Mike
"Ken Ness" <Kn...@btopenworld.com> wrote in message
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Chris Carroll
a lump or heap and came to mean pretty much anything sticking up i.e. cocked
up as in a hay cock or a cock's comb. There are even two hills in Cumbria
called "Little Cockup" and "Great Cockup" (which is over 1,700 feet high) -
I doubt if any of it comes from archery.
Chris
"Richard" <hhgg...@mweb.co.za> wrote in message
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Ken Ness
nocking the arrow then the "cock" feather would/would not be up - and before
you ask with 10,000 'orrible screaming Frenchmen descending on you would you
stop to look?
Ken Ness
"Tom Duncan" <tpd...@york.ac.uk> wrote in message
news:3D06554F...@york.ac.uk...
Tom Duncan
>
> I suppose if you tend to lay the long bow horizontal to the group whilst
> nocking the arrow then the "cock" feather would/would not be up - and before
> you ask with 10,000 'orrible screaming Frenchmen descending on you would you
> stop to look?
>
> Ken Ness
>
Very valid point. Although, if being attacked by "10,000 'orrible
screaming Frenchmen" I wouldn't be shooting at all. I'd be running :-)
Peter S. Saly
his response..
"Ken Ness" <Kn...@btopenworld.com> wrote in message
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shadyshark
reading somewhere - Desmond Morris?).
"Drawing a longbow" was once a term for spinning a story or tall tale,
I'm told. But not in use anymore.
One still in use: "having another string to your bow" - meaning having
a fall back position, back up plan or another skill.
I've also seen a reference which suggests that the word "sinner" is
derived from a Hebrew archery term (meaning "missing the mark" or
something similar).
"Mike Anthony" <mike.a...@dimspam.btinternet.com> wrote in message news:<ae5qdm$hbd$1...@helle.btinternet.com>...
Don Casteel
of archers available for shooting. This comes from practicing on the clout
( a shirt or other cloth outside of the church on Sunday.)
Michael Ney
winner.
"Near the mark" "Miss the mark" are both fairly obvious.
"Too close to call" where the nearer arrow to the mark cannot be
distinguished.
"To have a quiver-full" to have many children. (When Nathan Meyer Rothschild
sent his five sons out to found branches of the banking house all over
Europe they adopted the badge of the five arrows and their London HQ is
"Five Arrows House")
Hope those are useful
Michael Ney
Zolan
declare that "cock-up" came from a "chair bodgers" failure to make a wooden
chair which has all four feet flat on the floor, it is cocked (lifted at an
angle) up. And also not made quite right.
Z
"Chris Carroll" <jcca...@jccarroll.screaming.net> wrote in message
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Daz
used to describe someone who actually misses the target boss.
Daz
Paracelsus
languages other than English.
Now I'm sure that in the pre indo-european languages there were some
rare and eloquent chestnuts.
davemc...@gmail.com
> I am trying to compile a list of sayings and expressions that are in common
> use today but have their roots in archery. This is for use as part of a
> display for a public Have-a-go our club is holding. Any (preferably) clean
> offerings would be appreciated.
>
> Thanks
>
> Ken Ness