gunslinger means A person in the Old West who carried a gun and was an expert at quickly drawing it and firing. It carries an Arena rating of 1416, earned across 3 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, gunslinger ranks #471 of 17,127 for Most Vivid Words, #981 of 17,142 for Most Ingenious Words, #2,306 of 17,134 for Most Malleable Words, #3,209 of 17,126 for Most Satisfying to Say.
Why “gunslinger” is a great word
A gunslinger is a person, especially in the American Old West, skilled in the rapid drawing and firing of a handgun, or one who displays a similarly reckless, confrontational bravado. From gun + slinger (one who throws or wields), first attested in 1875. Unlike "gunfighter," which denotes a historically grounded professional combatant, or "outlaw," which defines a specific legal status, "gunslinger" is a later, cinematic term conjuring an ethos of style over substance. It is the metallic whisper of leather as a holster is cleared, the charged stillness before a showdown where reputation outweighs justice, and the single, deafening punctuation mark in a dusty silence—the crafted myth of violence as a performative art.
Etymology
From gun + slinger.
noun
- A person in the Old West who carried a gun and was an expert at quickly drawing it and firing.e.g.“Along with Dolores, there’s Teddy (James Marsden), a heroic-seeming gunslinger looking for adventure.” — 2016 October 2, David Sims, “Westworld Is a Grand Saga of Gunslingers and Robots”, in The Atlantic:
- A person who behaves with the reckless bravado expected of someone who would duel with guns.e.g.“HIP YOUNG GUNSLINGERS WANTED (BASS, DRUMS, GUITAR) FOR NEW BAND. MUST BE INTO REM, PRIMAL SCREAM, FANCLUB ETC. CONTACT BARRY IN THE SHOP.” — 1995, Nick Hornby, High Fidelity, London: Victor Gollancz, →ISBN, page 142:
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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