Greek Linguistic Roots: A Greek fellow (Ascham) constructed the word by combining the Ancient Greek toxon (meaning "bow") and phílos (meaning "loving" or "dear"), literally creating the compound "lover of the bow."
Evolution in the 18th Century: In the late 1700s, as archery was revived as a fashionable sporting pastime, societies like London's Royal Toxophilite Society (founded 1781) appended the suffix -ite, giving rise to toxophilite and its adjectival form toxophilitic.
Surprising Connection to "Toxic": The Greek toxon (bow) is also the ancestor of the word toxic! In ancient Greek, toxikòn phármakon referred specifically to "poison used on arrows."

No poison required!