"Well Met" - What! It's combat?

[Father Bill]

Some time ago, our friend Jock Scot (yes, he's okay, just temporarily otherwise engaged) asked about this phrase which seemed odd to him. There was quite a discussion about it in a now-closed thread. http://www.xmarksthescot.com/forum/f105/well-met-88366/

Well, I think I've found it, and in its origins it perhaps has nothing whatever to do with "Howdy, how ya doin'?"

In swordsmanship, when one combattant attacked another and that other "met" his blade with his own, thus preventing injury to himself, it was sometimes said with a glint in the eye, "Well met, Sir!" This later spread to other forms of combat, particularly oral argument or debate, formal or otherwise.

Using it as the "Howdy, how ya doin'?" is apparently the linguistic abberation and maybe even rather a misappropriation with little syntactical meaning.

SO! Let the combat recommence!

(Seems to me to be an odd thing to say.)