Triggering

How to spell triggering

10 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce triggering

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does triggering mean?

1. verbCausing something to begin or happen, especially as an automatic reaction to an event.
2. adjectiveLikely to cause a strong emotional or distressing reaction in someone.

Triggering in a sentence

• verb

  The software update kept triggering error messages all morning.

• adjective

  The documentary carried a warning that some scenes might be triggering for viewers.

• verb

  A sudden drop in temperature is triggering the heating system.

• adjective

  The support group avoids triggering language when describing past events.

Where does triggering come from?

Language of origin: Dutch

The base word trigger comes from the Dutch trekker, meaning 'a puller' or 'a thing that pulls', built on the verb trekken 'to pull or draw'. It entered English in the early 1600s, first written as 'tricker', for the part of a firearm that a finger pulls to fire it. Over time the spelling settled into 'trigger', and the word broadened from the literal lever to any small action that sets off a larger chain of events. The present participle triggering simply adds the -ing ending to that verb, and because the base already ends in a single stressed vowel plus a consonant, the final r doubles before -ing. In recent decades a newer sense developed in psychology and everyday speech, describing something that sets off a strong emotional or traumatic reaction.

How the word is built

• trigger (from Dutch trekker: a puller, a device that pulls)
• -ing (present participle / gerund suffix)