"A Google search would seem to indicate that most internet users
would assume you meant a long stick bent by a string and used to fling a
projectile. Nonetheless, an interesting question."
Actually "Bowing" does have it's earliest European origin in archery,
specifically in late 14th century England when archery was beginning to
become obsolete as an instrument of imposing extreme diplomacy. Just as
it is a commonplace today for a business executive, when playing golf
with a senior corporate officer, to lose discreetly by a few strokes, so
it was back then when enjoying a few ends of target archery at the
butts, the Captaine of the Archers also could not afford to humiliate
his sovereign lord in friendly competition (especially when said lord
was Henry VIII, an expert, avid longbowman) - but, at the same time in
those days when Agincourt and other engagements were still fresh in the
national memory- neither could the Yeomen of the Bowmen appear to be
incompetent. So it became standard practice to accidentally "drop" an
arrow or two (faking a dry-fire from a broken nock was typical) during
the play, and then have to bend at the waist- virtually at the feet of
the Lord Alpha Male- to retrieve one's arrows from the ground- perhaps
also "scraping" the ground with the arrow point- and thereby miss a
turn, lose points, etc. This practice became known as "bowing",
originally pronounced "Boe-ing", just as "Doe-land" became "Dow-land".
This explanation comes from a subsequently edited-out chapter of Roger
Ascham's "Toxophilus; The Schoole of Shooting", 1545.
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