"Origins of words" by Susie Dent, Countdown 13/09/17 (upshot, parting shot)

I had an e-mail from John Travis, who's a regular viewer, and asked about the origin of "the upshot" of something, so the outcome, and before I get to that, it gives me a chance to give one of my favourite stories in English, which is "parting shot". If we say something a parting shot, that's a, sort of, conclusive remark, perhaps something that you give as you walk out with a triumph and a flourish, but it goes back to another expression altogether, which was a Parthain shot, The Parthhain being an ancient race living in south-west Asia, very skilled warrior with very, very clever battle tactics, and the horseman would buffle their enemies with incredibly rapid manoeuvres, one of which was to discharge arrows backwards as they looked to be fleeing, so it looked like they were, sort of, riding away, when in fact they would turn around on their horse  and send off fatal arrows at their enemy. But to come to upshot, that's been around for quite a long time, not quite as long as parting shot, but more then four centures at least, and the first recorded usage is in 1531, and it's wonderful because it conjures up all these images of 16th-century England, when archery tournaments were very big deal at festivals and general, sort of, celebrations, if you like, under royal command. An upshot was the very last shot in an archery competition, so it was a diciding shot, and that first record I mentioned is from the Privy Purse, showing the expenses of the Henry VIII, where it says, "Item paid to the same Coton" - being a man, an archer, - "for one upshot that he won of the king's grace". In other words, he was representing the king, and he won the archery competition with his upshot, that final winning shot, and so he rcieved some money from the Privy Purse. And so that was an upshotit had everything to do with bows ans arrows.