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bow and arrow

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
weapon consisting of two parts; the bow is made of a strip of flexible material, such as wood, with a cord linking the two ends of the strip to form a tension from which is propelled the arrow; the arrow is a straight shaft with a sharp point on one end and usually with feathers attached to the other end. The use of the bow and arrow for hunting and for war dates back to the Paleolithic period in Africa, Asia, and Europe. It was widely used in ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, Persia, the Americas, and Europe until the introduction of gunpowder. Arrowheads were first made of burnt wood, then stone or bone, and then metals. Various woods and bones were used for the bow itself. However, it was not a powerful weapon until the invention of the compound, or composite, bow around 1500 B.C. on the steppes of Central Asia. A composite bow is made of various materials (wood, horn, sinew) glued together so as to increase their natural strength and elasticity. Bows and arrows were among the dominant…
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Full text Article Bow and arrow

From A Dictionary of Literary Symbols
As the weapon that combines distance, speed, stealth, and piercingness or penetration, the bow and arrow have been recruited since our oldest literature to play figurative parts. Psalm 64, for instance, complains of the “secret counsel of the wicked” (2), who “bend their bows to shoot their arrows, …
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Full text Article bow and arrow

From Britannica Concise Encyclopedia
Weapon consisting of a strip of wood or other flexible material, bent and held in tension by a string. The arrow, a long wooden shaft with a pointed tip, is stabilized in flight by a feathered tail. The arrow is fitted to the string by a notch in the end of the shaft and is drawn back to produce…
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Full text Article bow and arrow

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
weapon consisting of two parts; the bow is made of a strip of flexible material, such as wood, with a cord linking the two ends of the strip to form a tension from which is propelled the arrow; the arrow is a straight shaft with a sharp point on one end and usually with feathers attached to the…
| 554 words
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Full text Article bow and arrows of Heracles

From Encyclopedia of Mythological Objects
The bow and arrows of the legendary demigod and hero Heracles from classical Greek mythology do not have any innate magical abilities, but they are mentioned in many myths and played a significant role in the Trojan War. After slaying the hydra, Heracles dipped his arrows in the creature's blood, …
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Full text Article bow 3

From The American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language
A bent, curved, or arched object. A weapon consisting of a curved, flexible strip of material, especially wood, strung taut from end to end and used to launch arrows. a. An archer. b. Archers considered as a group. a. Music A rod having horsehair drawn tightly b... …
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Full text Article arrow

From Word Origins
Appropriately enough, the word arrow comes from the same ultimate Indo- European source that produced the Latin word for ‘bow’ - *arkw- . The Latin descendant of this was arcus (whence English arc and arch ), but in Germanic it became *arkhw- . From this basic ‘bow’ word were formed derivatives in…
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Full text Article arrow

From The Macquarie Dictionary
a slender, straight, generally pointed, missile weapon made to be shot from a bow. The shaft is nearly always made of light wood, fitted with feathers at the neck end to help guide it. Plural: arrows anything resembling an arrow in form, as the inflorescence of sugar cane. Plural: arrows a…
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Full text Article bow

From Word Origins
There are three distinct words bow in English, although two of them, ‘arrow-shooter’ [OE] and ‘bend the body’ [OE], are ultimately related. Bow for arrows comes from Old English boga , which also meant more generally ‘arch’; its source was Germanic *bugon , a derivative of *bug- , the short stem of…
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Full text Article bow of Kaundinya, the

From Encyclopedia of Mythological Objects
In Cambodian oral folklore, the Indian Brahman priest Kaundinya had a prophetic dream: he was to travel to the Great Lake and there find his riches. Upon waking, Kaundinya took up his magical bow and went to the Great Lake. He ventured onto the water, where he encountered the beautiful naga…
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Full text Article bow 3

From Merriam-Webster's Collegiate(R) Dictionary
pronunciation (bef. 12c) 1 a :  something bent into a simple curve b :  rainbow 2 :  a weapon that is made of a strip of flexible material (as wood) with a cord connecting the two ends and holding the strip bent and that is used to propel an arrow 3 :  archer 4 a :  a metal ring or loop forming a…
| 143 words
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