bow [OE] The bow of a ship has nothing to do with a person bowing in respect or a support bowing under pressure. The nautical bow [E17th] is in fact related to bough [OE], the limb of a tree. Its immediate source, in the later Middle Ages, was German or Dutch. The phrase a shot across the bows, ‘a warning statement or gesture’, has its origins in the world of naval warfare, where it is one which is not intended to hit, but to make ships stop or alter their course. See also buxom. The archer’s bow and the act of bending, both Old English, are related and come from Germanic roots. The archer’s bow got its name from the shape, which also appears in Old English rainbow and elbow [OE]. The first part of the latter gives us the old measurement the ell [OE], a variable measure, originally the distance from elbow to fingertip, which comes from the Indo-European root that also gives us ulna [LME] for the bone that runs from elbow to wrist.