Talk:point blank

Do we have any evidence for the bull's skull story? It sounds plausible, but my limited research hasn't found any support for it (e.g., no contemporary pictures of archers aiming at a bull's skull, no contemporary writings). I'm concerned that it may be a story constructed later to explain the term. 12.38.143.114 20:01, 10 January 2020 (UTC) Leif Bennett

It has all the marks of netymology: technically plausible, having obscure, but colorful elements such as skulls that imply that the originator has enough deep historical knowledge to uncover cool little-known facts, and totally disconnected with actual early usage (in this case, it first referred to artillery- see the Online Etymology Dictionary and wordhistories.net, for a couple of discussions that came up in a cursory search).

The editor who added it in 2006 also added a similar etymology at bullseye, and nothing else here. He's active on Wikipedia, and seems to be knowledgeable about the history of engines, but has never edited anything else relating to archery on any Wikimedia project. He must have run into the information somewhere on the internet and passed it on without checking.

I replaced the etymology with an etymology-request template. Chuck Entz (talk) 21:59, 10 January 2020 (UTC)