Mere days ago, Joelle Kovach of the Peterborough Examiner newspaper in Peterborough, Ontario (Canada) reported on the ongoing Ontario Civilian Police Commission (OCPC) review in an article titled, “Police Chief’s Aarrows’ Comment ‘Shakespearian,’ Not Racist: Former Police Board Chairwoman.” Police Chief Rodd Murray had been quoted in the media in 2011 (as problems between Peterborough Mayor Daryl Bennett and the Peterborough-Lakefield police services board, and the Mayor’s vocal criticisms of the Peterborough-Lakefield Community Police Services, were at their height) as having said, “We have real bad guys firing real bullets at us. We don’t need politicians firing arrows at us.”
Brent Whetung filed a letter of complaint to the police board wherein he stated, “We as First Nation people are sometimes harassed by ignorant or racist people who ridicule us by using the term shooting arrows.”
On February 6, 2014, an article by Tom McLeish (professor of Physics and Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research at Durham University in the UK) entitled, “Business Drops The Baton In Higher Ed Innovation” was published on the National Centre for Universities and Business website. The article addressed Sir Andrew Witty’s aims to connect the intellectual power of universities with prosperity and growth. The closing paragraph in the article was this:
We need to recruit their entrepreneurial energy to address the problems of energy, climate, healthcare and sustainability. Firing arrows into the air may not be the answer -– readdressing the economics of R&D investment by business will be.
In the WikiHow entry entitled, “How to Defend Against Verbal Bullying” the following advice is given by one of the 22 contributors to the Wiki article:
Imagine an archer (bully) firing arrows (words) at a ghost (you). As a ghost, you are slightly amused and bored by the silly archer. The ghost cannot be hurt by the arrows. The ghost doesn’t run away or fire arrows back. The ghost just yawns. What can the archer do to the ghost? Nothing but keep firing arrows that never hit the target. The ghost smiles when the archer finally gets bored or frustrated and gives up.
According to scientists, the origins of the bow and arrow are prehistoric, and are found on nearly all the continents.
In Greek mythology, Apollo was the god of archery and heroic excellence. There’s a Turkish expression firing arrows of criticism that has been shortened to simply firing arrows. In William Shakespeare’s 1602 play, “Hamlet” the main character speaks of the “slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.”
Back in 247 BC, the Parthian empire was so skilled in the art of archery that not even Rome could conquer them. Among many useful war-related inventions, the Parthians had a saddle with a stirrup that enabled warriors on horseback to turn and fire arrows at their enemies while riding away at full gallop during a strategic retreat. This shot was known as the Parthian shot, and the Parthian shot gave birth to the dismissive final remark expression: a parting shot.
Another common expression referring to someone having more than one approach to a problem is to have more than one arrow in one’s quiver (a quiver being the correct term dating back to the 14th century that describes the case used for carrying or holding arrows). The implication is that one of those “arrows” will hit the “target” … in other words, one of those possible solutions will be the one that works best at resolving the problem at hand.
And so, while Idiomation cannot say for certain when or where the expression firing arrows first originated, Idiomation can assure readers and visitors that the expression has been around for a very long time, and in some countries at a time when people were unaware of North or South America.
Historically Speaking 