Point Blank Meaning Origin

Point is a little more ambiguous.

Point blank meaning origin. How to use point blank in a sentence. 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. Blanc is the french word for white. She asked me point blank whether i had cheated on the test.

Straightforward plain or explicit. 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. The gun was fired from point blank. Blank from french blanc white is a noun meaning the white spot in the centre of a target.

Aimed or fired straight at the mark especially from close range. Try our grammar checker online. During the second world war missiles were fired from point blank they were intended to kill all of the people in the nearby vicinity. Point blank definition is marked by no appreciable drop below initial horizontal line of flight.

Back then archery targets were usually white. 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. Blank derives from the french blanc which of course means white. It is thought the word blanc may be used to describe a small white aiming spot formerly at the center of shooting targets.

What was first meant by point blank range was rather more precise than our current meaning. The term point blank dates to the 1570s and is probably of french origin deriving from pointé à blanc pointed at white. The origin of this word goes back to french archery terminology in the late middle ages. 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.

From old french pointe. See point en in into blanc white bull s eye target from old french white. The notion would be of standing close enough to aim point at the blankwithout allowance for curve windage or gravity. Point was used as a verb and blank taken from the french word for white blanc meant pointing at the target.

However three facts make this traditional explanation implausible.