[Ansteorra] Fw: arbalest: M-W's Word of the Day

[Morgan Cain (Ansteorra)]

But we all knew this one, didn't we?  <G>

> The Word of the Day for December 2 is:
>
> arbalest   \AHR-buh-list\   (noun)
>      : a crossbow especially of medieval times
>
> Example sentence:
>      The destructive power of the arbalest was so greatly
> feared during the 1100s that some governments tried to outlaw
> its use.
>
> Did you know?
>      The arbalest was the distance weapon of choice for
> medieval armies. It was first mentioned in 1100 in _The Anglo-
> Saxon Chronicle_, a historical record of Saxon England. In 1622
> British historian Peter Heylyn wrote that Richard the Lion-
> Hearted, the 12th-century English monarch, was "slain by a shot
> from an Arbalist." The crossbow's name is one of many terms that
> came into English from Old French when the Normans took control
> of England after the Battle of Hastings; our word is adapted
> from "arbaleste," the French name of the weapon. The French, in
> turn, derived their word from a combination of the Latin "arcus"
> (meaning "bow") and "ballista" (itself a derivative of the Greek
> word for "throw").
>
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