"character or skill of a marksman; dexterity in shooting at the mark," 1823, from marksman + -ship.
Entries linking to marksmanship
marksman n.
"one skillful in shooting with a bow or gun, one who readily hits the mark," 1650s, from mark (n.1) in Middle English sense of "target" + man; with genitive -s. Earlier form was markman (1570s).
-ship
word-forming element meaning "quality, condition; act, power, skill; office, position; relation between," Middle English -schipe, from Old English -sciepe, Anglian -scip "state, condition of being," from Proto-Germanic *-skepi- (cognates: Old Norse -skapr, Danish -skab, Old Frisian -skip, Dutch -schap, German -schaft), from *skap- "to create, ordain, appoint," from PIE root *(s)kep-, forming words meaning "to cut, scrape, hack" (see shape (v.)). It often forms abstracts to go with corresponding concretes (friend/friendship, etc.).