Crossbow

How to spell crossbow

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce crossbow

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does crossbow mean?

1. nounA weapon consisting of a short bow mounted crosswise on a stock, used to shoot bolts.

Crossbow in a sentence

• The medieval soldier loaded a bolt into his crossbow.

• Target archery clubs sometimes offer a crossbow for hire.

Where does crossbow come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is a compound of two everyday English elements, 'cross' and 'bow'. The 'bow' half is genuinely native: it descends from the Old English boga, meaning a bent or arched thing, and ultimately from a Germanic root for bending, which also gave us 'elbow' and the act of bowing the head. The 'cross' half comes by a longer road, from the Latin crux meaning a stake or gallows, which entered Old English through ecclesiastical use and came to describe anything that lies transversely. The weapon takes its name from the way its short bow is mounted crosswise on a wooden stock, forming a clear cross shape. English began calling it the crossbow in the 1400s, replacing the older term 'arblast'; because both halves are familiar words, the spelling holds no real trap beyond remembering it is written as one solid word.

How the word is built

• cross (transverse, from Latin crux 'cross')
• bow (a weapon for shooting arrows, from Old English boga)