frankdrm
Since: Jul, 2022
Jul 20th 2022 at 12:32:26 PM
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What the point of the above is (which I forgot to include) is I think the entry needs to be edited to remove the reference to "shoot" being incorrect. Since it is not.
"A common terminology has a work's narration say that people shoot or fire a bow as a back-formation from firearm terminology. The correct expression is to loose an arrow."
While this is correct for "fire" (originally applied to the act of igniting the gunpowder in a weapon), "shoot" is from OE sceotan "to hurl missiles, cast; strike, hit, push; run, rush; send forth swiftly; wound with missiles." This was discussed back in 2011 on this page: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=13169942500A25420100&page=0
Robert Hardy says in _The Longbow: a Social and Military History_ a traditional construction was "shooting in a longbow" because of the way almost the whole of the archer's body was framed by the Anglo-Welsh longbow when it was fully drawn.
So yes, "shoot" as in "Shoot him!" would be correct for the period. "Loose" is a direct reference to the act of releasing the string and arrow once the bow is fully drawn, and certainly could be a command given to an archer in the process of shooting.
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