alt Hacker NewsI guess my pet peeve of "firing an arrow" is also a gun mistake of sorts. It can be found in many fantasy books. A bow is not a gun, there's no gunpowder involved. If a commander orders his archers to "fire" what should they do, set their bows on fire?
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Dip their arrow heads in the fire braziers so the tar / pitch starts to burn, ready for the coming "pull" and "loose" commands?
What's the correct term? Loose? I'm sure I've heard that before.
I know nothing about arrows except to identify the pointy end.
And what about archer companies doing "volley fire" ? As in what looks like 99% of Hollywood movies.
https://acoup.blog/2025/05/02/collections-why-archers-didnt-...
I was just watching Tom Scott's latest video, he mentioned firing a trebuchet and the guide pointed this out that you don't "fire" a trebuchet since it doesn't involve gunpowder, you launch it.
Tom's commentary later was that he disagreed with that sentiment. "I disagree with those potential comments. Words change their meaning overtime. In modern English, you can fire an arrow, you can fire a torpedo, we were gonna fire that trebuchet"
This is a good example of movies using inaccurate depictions that audiences will easily understand instead of accurate depictions that may confuse them.
Just think of it as a translation.
thanks, now I will never be able to stop noticing this when watching anything in English
In reverse, "point blank" is an archery term indicating the distance where, with your bow fully drawn, the point of the arrow can be sighted directly on the target. (Closer and you have to bring the point down, farther and you have to bring the point above the target.)
It seems that "point blank" has come to mean simply, "a shot you can't miss".