archer (n.) Look up archer at
"one who shoots arrows from a (long) bow," late 13c., from Anglo-French archer, Old French archier "archer; bow-maker," from Late Latin arcarius, alteration of Latin arcuarius "maker of bows," from arcus "bow" (see arc (n.)). (The classical Latin word was arquites "archers;" the Greeks shunned archery as an unmanly tactic, and the Romans seem to have had little appreciation for it until their later encounters with mounted barbarian archers). Also a 17c. name for the bishop in chess. As a type of tropical fish, 1834, from its shooting drops of water at insects.