the.com/gunslinger
A reputation with a holster, usually outliving the hand that drew it.
means A gunfighter skilled and quick with a pistol, especially the fast-draw sharpshooters of the American Wild West myth.
from A straightforward American compound of 'gun' and 'slinger' — someone who slings (hurls, flings, or wears slung at the hip) a weapon. 'Sling' itself goes back to Old Norse and Old English words for throwing or hurling. 'Gunslinger' itself is a surprisingly late coinage — not actual frontier slang but a word popularized by early 20th-century pulp Westerns and movies, which is why it carries more Hollywood dust than real trail dust.
- origin era
- term is mostly Hollywood, not the real Old West
- real gunfights
- rare, messy, often fatal to bystanders not duelists
- programmer slang
- now means a reckless, fast, unreviewed coder
- myth fuel
- quick draw duels were largely dime novel invention