Other forms: bowmen
A bowman is a man skilled with a bow and arrow. A skilled bowman, the bowman drew, ranks of bowmen.
The English longbow needed a lifetime of practice and left its mark on the skeleton, so the bones of a bowman can be identified by the deformation. Archery practice was compulsory by law for centuries. Archer is the general word and bowman the older one.
1nounbowmanA man skilled with a bow and arrow.
“Each bowman carried a quiver of arrows on his back.”
bowman is an archer.
Also accepted in games: archer
Bow plus man, recorded in Middle English. Archer, from French, arrived alongside it and largely won.
Middle English
boweman
English, today
bowman
From Middle English boweman, bouman, boughman, equivalent to bow + man.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA