Point Blank Meaning Origin

Blank derives from the french blanc which of course means white.

Point blank meaning origin. Try our grammar checker online. It is thought the word blanc may be used to describe a small white aiming spot formerly at the center of shooting targets. Point was used as a verb and blank taken from the french word for white blanc meant pointing at the target. The term point blank dates to the 1570s and is probably of french origin deriving from pointé à blanc pointed at white.

Aimed or fired straight at the mark especially from close range. Back then archery targets were usually white. How to use point blank in a sentence. Point blank n 1570s in gunnery having a horizontal direction said to be from point v blank n here meaning the white center of a target.

In the middle ages when archery was very popular the target that was aimed at had a white circle in the middle like the red bull s eye that we have today when an archer would compete he would point his arrow at the. She asked me point blank whether i had cheated on the test. Blanc is the french word for white. Point is a verb referring to the pointing of the arrow or gun at the blank.

Point blank on the model of middle french de pointe en blanc. During the second world war missiles were fired from point blank they were intended to kill all of the people in the nearby vicinity. Then as now it meant too close to miss but the specific meaning was within the distance that a missile travels in a direct line with no perceptible drop due to gravity. It s not exactly clear how the phrase point blank came to be used to refer to a very small distance in the field of shooting and archery but according to the most logical and convincing supposition the phrase is derived from a french term pointé à blanc which literally translates to pointed at white.

From old french pointe. Point is a little more ambiguous. However three facts make this traditional explanation implausible. Straightforward plain or explicit.

The notion would be of standing close enough to aim point at the blankwithout allowance for curve windage or gravity. Pointe sharp end tip outermost end such as the place on a practice range from which an archer can shoot without compensating for gravity. Blank from french blanc white is a noun meaning the white spot in the centre of a target. Point blank definition is marked by no appreciable drop below initial horizontal line of flight.

What was first meant by point blank range was rather more precise than our current meaning.