Yea, makes sense. It's trivial but I've always wondered that.

Oh I left out the hunters

They are in that cycle too. It is a triangle

Snipers of WW2 from USA were "competition hunters" that shot animals at great distances

Before them the concept of sniping as such was not that established in the firearm warfare

And fun fact: sniping comes from trying to hunt snipes (a type of bird, that is small and is a very agile flier that can change directions rapidly) from around 1770

It was an endeering term for an especially capable sharpshooter later on, and then became a term for a long-distance precision marksman (before that it pretty much meant a short range quick-draw skill)

i mean tbh its still used in that old way nowadays too in vidya games

ie "nice snipe" when u land a skillshot or just kill someone

I think I saw the snipe origin on a History channel show once.

Technically the official term is a "precision long range marksman" for the scoped warriors

So technically you can still call the quick-draw hard precision shots "snipes"

If anything particularly challenging skeet shooting competitions desreve the term "sniping" the most if we'd be the etymological nazis

But I digress, I don't particularly care how people prefer to utilise language

XD Etymological Nasis the best kind of nazis

I do appreciate people that know why "defence" has a "c" in it

But then again etymology is akin to a short-term cultural memory. People forget the derivative connotation in like two generations and treat a word as a standalone

>But I digress, I don't particularly care how people prefer to utilize language
You should.

finally getting to watchign that ken burns vietnam doc lol heard alot about how some rightys were butthurt about how much of a liberal bias it has lol

i shall report my results back

For the record, when I said hunters, I meant it much more broadly. I would count a soldier as a hunter. One of humans but a hunter none the less. So the gear came from the people who designed it to fit their need, then the wannabe hunters come and use it because it looks cool. "Look at me, I can totally do all the things these other people do!"

I am curious about the use of language, but I don't want to dicktate people how to use it

As for the left wordbending: they have nothing to offer when it comes to the official language

Official language exists for a reason and is backed with actual power and money, because people need to make deals that have no room for cheeky business and wordplay

Hence I am not too worried about it

the problem with language is that it is always changing

strictly enforcing rules kills it and prevents it from growing to describe new ideas or connections we have made

its why we made language, or one of the reasons, to take these thoughts and convey them to other people

and we have found many ways to do so

but you also cannot just make up your own stuff, at least not without explaining it.

because then people will not understand you

and you will be isolated

Languages do evolve, thus we need language reforms now and then

But we also need the "standard" language to conduct business without misunderstanding

reporting back.... yeah its not that lefty, lol was jsut conservatives that ken burns is a left himself XD

the vietnam war

Language needs to evolve for utility. When you reduce utility (figuratively using literally) you are not growing the language

You are actually making it harder to communicate certain ideas

languages simultaneously increase and decrease in simplicity in different areas

Sure, but you need to be cognizant of where that's happening and why, or you might find your future a little doubleplus ungood comrade

languages have generally evolved very organically, if something would ruin the language it simply won't catch on