Donald Trump Jr is using the word as the title for his forthcoming liberal-bashing book. But is he being a snowflake?
Donald Trump Jnr announced this week that his new book-shaped object, due out in the autumn, was Triggered: How the Left Thrives on Hate and Wants to Silence Us. That might seem a bit snowflakey coming from someone whose racist dad is literally the president, but how did “triggered” acquire the sense of “emotionally distraught”?
The word “trigger” for the lever of a gun or trap was originally spelled “tricker”, and came from the Dutch trekken, to pull. From 1930 “to trigger” an event, idea, or action was to act as a catalyst for it. In 1977, the American jazz cornet player Jimmy McPartland explained: “Before I improvise, I just listen, and that triggers me.” He did not mean that what he heard upset him so much he had to run from the room.
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