Parting Shot / Parthian Shot
The phrase "parting shot" has its origins from the Parthian shot. The first record of the phrase "parting shot" was by John McCleod, surgeon on board His Majesty's ship Alceste contained in "A narrative of a Voyage to the Yellow Sea" (1818). The two phrases have rather similar phonetic soundings but are actually separately derived at different times. Although the Parthian archers of old have been famous for their shooting, the term "parthian shot" was recorded for the first time in 1832 by Captain Mundy, ADC to Lord Combermere on a hunting trip in India.
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Famous quotes containing the words parting and/or shot:
“Though her parting dims the day,
Stealing grace from all alive;
Heartily know,
When half-gods go,
The gods arrive.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Whether we immoralists do any harm to virtue?—Just as little as anarchists do to princes. It is only because they have been shot at that they once again sit securely on their thrones. Moral: we must shoot at morals.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)