Trigger

How to spell trigger

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce trigger

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does trigger mean?

1. verbTo cause something to start or happen, often suddenly.
2. nounA small lever that activates a mechanism, especially the device that fires a gun.

Trigger in a sentence

• verb

  A single late payment can trigger a penalty fee on the account.

• noun

  She kept her finger off the trigger until she was ready to shoot.

• verb

  Loud noises seem to trigger the alarm even when no one is near.

• noun

  A light touch on the trigger released the spring inside the trap.

Where does trigger come from?

Language of origin: Dutch

This word came into English in the early 1600s from the Dutch word trekker, which meant 'a puller' and was formed on the verb trekken, meaning 'to pull or draw'. The earliest English form was actually 'tricker', the small lever a finger pulls to fire a gun, and over the 1600s the pronunciation and spelling drifted to 'trigger'. From the literal firearm part the word grew a figurative life: by the nineteenth century something could 'trigger' a reaction the way a pulled lever sets off a mechanism. The doubled g is the spelling trap, since the short 'i' before it leads writers to expect that doubling but not always to apply it. The same Dutch trekken also gave English 'trek', a journey originally meaning a pulling or hauling, so trigger and trek are distant relatives.

How the word is built

• trigger (from Dutch trekker: a puller, from trekken 'to pull'); reanalysed in English with the -er agent ending