slingshot

Etymology

It is a compound from English sling + shot,^[2][3][4][5] first recorded in the United States.^[6][4] The OED takes the first part as the noun sling, the implement for hurling stones,^[2] while Etymonline and the Shorter Oxford take it as the verb.^[3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

A catapult, a forked stick with an elastic band for shooting stones: 1849, in N. Kingsley's diary of 23 October.^[2][5][3] Dictionary.com dates it to 1840–50 and marks it as an Americanism.^[6]

Semantic evolution

Etymonline notes the older slung-shot (1848), a stone wrapped in a sling and used as a weapon by roughs and criminals;^[3] the OED records slingshot itself from 1891 for such a weapon, a heavy weight wrapped in cloth and used as a cosh, perhaps now obsolete.^[2] From 1951 the word was used figuratively for anything propelled as if from a catapult,^[2][4] part of a wider pattern, dated to 1900–1949, of describing impulse and air and space travel in terms of swift movement.^[7] In American drag racing a slingshot was from 1962 a car built with the driver behind the rear wheels,^[8][5] and in motor racing it is a way of overtaking by following another car closely and then using the reserve power.^[8][5] The verb, to move or accelerate as if shot from a catapult, is recorded from 1969,^[2][3][4] and in astronautics the word has meant since 1970 a flight that uses the pull of a planet or moon to gain speed and change course.^[2][4]

Timeline

• 1849 – a catapult.^[2][5][3]
• 1891 – a heavy weight wrapped in cloth, used as a cosh (perhaps obsolete).^[2]
• 1951 – figurative uses implying propulsion as if from a catapult.^[2]
• 1962 – a drag-racing car with the driver seated behind the rear wheels.^[8]
• 1969 – verb, to move or accelerate as if from a slingshot.^[2][3]
• 1970 – in astronautics, a flight using a celestial body's gravity to accelerate and change course.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A Y-shaped stick or frame with an elastic band fastened to its prongs, used to shoot small stones; a catapult: The boy knocked a can off the fence with his slingshot.^[5][9][2]
2. A sling, a strap for hurling stones.^[5]
3. (astronautics) The use of the gravitational pull of a planet or moon to speed up a spacecraft and change its course.^[2][4]
4. In motor racing, a way of passing in which a car drafting behind another uses its reserve power to overtake.^[5][10][8]
5. A dragster in which the driver sits behind the rear wheels.^[5][10][8]

Verb

1. To move, or to send something, rapidly as if shot from a slingshot; of a vehicle, to accelerate sharply.^[4][2]

Related words

• sling
• shot

Usage notes

The Shorter Oxford marks the word as originally American,^[4] and the OED defines it simply as "a catapult", the name Wiktionary gives as usual in Britain, Australia and New Zealand.^[2][1]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
7. ^ Mapping Metaphor with the Historical Thesaurus, University of Glasgow, mappingmetaphor.arts.gla.ac.uk
8. ^ a b c d e Dalzell, Tom; Victor, Terry, eds. (2013), The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, 2nd ed., London: Routledge
9. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
10. ^ a b Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster