archer n.

late 14c., "part of a curved line," originally in reference to the sun's apparent motion across the sky, from Old French arc "bow, arch, vault" (12c.), from Latin arcus "a bow, arch," from Proto-Italic *arkwo- "bow."

This has Germanic cognates in Gothic arhvazna, Old English earh, Old Norse ör "arrow," from Proto-Germanic *arkw-o- "belonging to a bow." It also has cognates in Greek arkeuthos, Latvian ercis "juniper," Russian rakita, Czech rokyta, Serbo-Croatian rakita "brittle willow." De Vaan sees an Italo-Germanic word for "bow" which can be connected with Balto-Slavic and Greek words for "willow" and "juniper" "under the well-founded assumption that the flexible twigs of juniper or willow were used as bows." The Balto-Slavic and Greek forms point to *arku-; "as with many plant names, this is likely to be a non-IE loanword."

The electrical sense is attested from 1821.

"fighting man armed with a bow," late 13c.; as a surname early 13c., from bow (n.1) "archer's bow" + man (n.). Bowman's capsule (1882) was named for English surgeon William Bowman (1816-1892).

"use of the bow and arrow," c. 1400, from Anglo-French archerye, Old French archerie, from archier "archer" (see archer).