Trigger comes from Dutch trekker — 'puller' — from trekken meaning 'to pull'. Dutch arms manufacturers exported both their guns and their terminology. The same root gives us trek — a long, pulling journey.
A device that releases a spring or catch to fire a gun; an event or circumstance that causes something to happen.
From Dutch trekker meaning 'puller', from trekken meaning 'to pull, to draw'. The word entered English through the firearms trade — the Dutch were major arms manufacturers in the 16th and 17th centuries, and English gunmakers adopted their terminology. A trigger is literally a 'puller' — the lever you pull to fire a weapon. The Dutch trekken is also the source of trek (a long, pulling journey — originally an ox-wagon migration
Trigger and trek are siblings. Both come from Dutch trekken — 'to pull'. A trigger is a puller (the lever on a gun). A trek is a pulling journey — originally the Afrikaans word for the ox-wagon migrations of the Boer settlers across South Africa. The Great Trek of the 1830s gave English the word for any long, difficult journey. Star