triggerman
Meaning
a person, especially a criminal, who is hired to kill someone.
a person who is responsible for initiating a particular action or event.
Structure
Usage
the police identified the victim as a known mob triggerman.
in the corporate scandal, he was seen as the triggerman for the fraudulent scheme.
the investigation focused on finding the triggerman who carried out the assassination.
Etymology
The word 'triggerman' is a Modern English compound, originating in the early 20th century American underworld slang. Its first element, 'trigger', derives from the Dutch 'trekker' (meaning 'pull'), which entered English via the mechanism of a firearm, referring to the lever that releases the firing mechanism. The second element, 'man', is from the Old English 'mann', a common agentive suffix denoting a person performing a specific role. The compound literally means 'the man who pulls the trigger', a starkly literal description for a hired assassin. Over time, its usage expanded metaphorically to denote anyone who initiates a decisive action, linking the physical act of firing a gun to the abstract concept of setting events in motion.
Analysis
trigger (from dutch trekker, meaning 'pull, draw', functioning as the core action element) + man (from old english mann, meaning 'person, human being', functioning as an agent noun suffix).