Есть ОЧЕНЬ интересные детали.
На wiktionary упоминается Ирландия с Британией: (obsolete, Ireland, Britain) To fire a gun into the air in order to end a duel.
И здесь почему-то тоже ссылаются на ирландский дуэльный кодекс (знаменитые драчуны...):
При этом, как и большинство дуэльных терминов, - из французского (From French déloper (“throw away”)) - потому там выше и "throwing away one's fire in a duel".https://www.definitions.net/definition/delope пишет:Delope is the practice of throwing away one's first fire in a duel (так!), in an attempt to abort the conflict. According to most traditions the deloper must first allow his opponent the opportunity to fire after the command is issued by the second, without hinting at his intentions. The Irish code duello forbids the practice of deloping explicitly.СпойлерПоказатьThe delope could be attempted for practical reasons if one's opponent was thought to be superior in ability, or for moral reasons if the duelist had objections to attempting to kill his opponent. For one's opponent to insist upon a second shot after a delope was considered bloodthirsty and unbecoming. Often, it would fall to the seconds to end the duel immediately after a delope had been observed.
PS Упоминается даже как возможная стратегия в теории игр - см. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deloping
PPS Похоже, на американской почве было принято, что deloper должен стрелять не в воздух:
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Alexander Hamilton, a 19th-century American politician, is thought to have attempted to delope during his infamous Burr–Hamilton duel (July 11, 1804) with Aaron Burr, the Vice President of the United States. Rather than firing into the ground (as was customary for deloping), Hamilton fired into the air over Burr's head; Burr, perhaps misunderstanding his opponent's intent, fired at Hamilton, mortally wounding him. Burr's animosity towards Hamilton was such that it is not out of the question that Burr understood what Hamilton was doing and intentionally shot to kill, or at least draw blood. Other historians have proposed that Burr shot first and the wounded Hamilton reflexively pulled the trigger, which would not be an instance of delope. Ron Chernow's 2004 biography Alexander Hamilton gives this version. According to his account, the shots were all but simultaneous, with Burr's coming first according to one of the two witnesses (the other witness claimed Hamilton fired first and Burr waited several seconds for the smoke to clear before returning fire). Chernow does note that Hamilton claimed, in a note he left behind should he die, that he intended to throw away his first shot—a claim that Burr would later call "contemptible, if true". Regardless of its accuracy, Burr certainly had no way of knowing.
