shootist

shootist

English

Etymology

shoot +‎ -ist

Noun

shootist (plural shootists)

1. (chiefly US, archaic) A person who is an expert user of firearms, especially a hunter or a gunfighter in the Old West.
   • 1895, O. Widmann, "An Hour with Baird's and Leconte's Sparrows near St. Louis, Missouri," The Auk, vol. 12, no. 3, p. 94:

     Not being a "shootist," I cannot lay the bird before you.

   • 1947, Charles J. Lovell, "The Background of Mark Twain's Vocabulary," American Speech, vol. 22, no. 2, p. 94:

     Such terminations in -ist were very common at one time; my collection includes swimmist, sparrist, ballist, walkist, shootist, saloonist, and several others.

References

• Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., 1989.
• Random House Webster's Unabridged Electronic Dictionary, 1987-1996.