Slingshot vs. Sling
This front page photo in yesterday's New York Times reminded me of a little pet peeve of mine. No, not the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, a different pet peeve: people who confuse slings with slingshots. The most common manifestation of this confusion is showing or describing the Biblical character David killing Goliath with a slingshot. This is wrong. It was a sling, which is a different thing altogether.
The weapon shown in the picture above is a sling. It's the weapon David used to kill Goliath. (I wonder if the Palestinian youth is aware of the irony of using a sling against Israel.) You put a projectile in the pouch, twirl it around, and release one of the strands at the right time, sending the projectile flying at the target.
A slingshot looks like this (image from Wikipedia):
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There. Now you know the difference and won't be one of those people that annoys me so much.
Comments
As for your question, the answer is "yes."
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/05/11/090511fa_fact_gladwell
Quote:
He came at Goliath with a slingshot and staff because those were the tools of his trade. He didn’t know that duels with Philistines were supposed to proceed formally, with the crossing of swords. “When the lion or the bear would come and carry off a sheep from the herd, I would go out after him and strike him down and rescue it from his clutches,” David explained to Saul. He brought a shepherd’s rules to the battlefield.
A friend of mine made his out of 16 gauge steel wire and loaded it with marbles. He killed birds with it.