Trapshooting

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The sport of shooting at clay pigeons that are launched into the air from a mechanical device called a trap
2. A competitive shooting sport in which participants fire shotguns at clay targets flung skyward from launching machines
3. Target shooting with a shotgun at spring-launched clay discs released from a trap, popular as a recreational or Olympic-style pastime

Etymology: Trapshooting is a sport in which competitors fire shotguns at clay targets, called "pigeons" in older usage, flung into the air from a mechanical device. The name is about as transparent as a compound can be: it joins "trap," the device that launches the target, with "shooting," the act of firing a gun. The sport takes its name from the launching machine rather than from any live bird or animal. Because the word is a plain combination of two existing English terms, there is no hidden history to uncover. It is a practical coinage that describes the activity directly, in the same way that "skeet shooting" and "clay pigeon shooting" describe their own equipment and targets.

Synonyms: clay pigeon shooting