Talk:bowstring

The second def is really just referring to a use of the bowstring, not a separate sense. I believe this definition (which is in a number of dictionaries) is a mistake that has arisen from mis-reading the OED entry originally published in 1887. The OED has two defs "1. The string of a bow; also fig." and "2. As used in Turkey for strangling offenders." ... the latter meaning "(a bowstring) as used in Turkey ...." - presumably because this was a very common usage in early Eng lit. But it isn't really a separate meaning. There is no indication in OED nor in the OED citations that the word means "A string (other than a bowstring) used by the Turks for strangling offenders" as our current implies.--Sonofcawdrey (talk) 05:01, 19 November 2015 (UTC)
 * I think delete. Your analysis looks good to me. Renard Migrant (talk) 10:39, 19 November 2015 (UTC)
 * Delete. I agree this is just the application of the main sense of the term to a specific situation. — Cheers, Jack Lee  –talk– 11:00, 19 November 2015 (UTC)
 * I wonder whether this should be a subsense (and similarly for axe). There are lots of hits for "escaped the bowstring", "escaping the bowstring" etc where only additional knowledge of Turkish execution methods tells you that this means "escaped execution". Smurrayinchester (talk) 11:06, 19 November 2015 (UTC)
 * That info can be added to the first definition, or as a usage note.--Sonofcawdrey (talk) 14:36, 19 November 2015 (UTC)


 * Keep. I'm beginning to see the point made by Smurrayinchester, so I'm changing my vote to "keep". We have something similar at shoe-leather. — Cheers, Jack Lee  –talk– 19:37, 19 November 2015 (UTC)
 * In that case, the def should be "such a bowstring used by medieval Turks as a weapon for strangulation." ... or something like that. (Also, with shoe-leather - the split into count/noncount is an oversimplification - obviously, shoe-leather used for making shoes is also uncount despite the plethora of count noun citations in the entry (e.g. " the cobbler's wife, was in Smyrna to buy shoe leather")).--Sonofcawdrey (talk) 05:03, 20 November 2015 (UTC)
 * Yes. I've updated shoe-leather accordingly. — Cheers, Jack Lee  –talk– 17:50, 20 November 2015 (UTC)

Kept and edited in light of this conversation. &#x200b;—msh210℠ (talk) 18:58, 22 December 2015 (UTC)