alt-b, alt-f does not work in xterm

Question

I use xterm under cygwin/Xming.

Alt-B (jump one word backwards) and Alt-F (one word forward) do not work, but instead display some diacritical characters or something.

I have created a file .Xresources and a file .Xdefaults in my home dir, each containing only this line:

xterm*eightBitInput: false

Yet the problem persists.

Answer 1

I think the relevant resource is metaSendsEscape, which you'll want to set to true.