a shot that is aimed and fired very quickly at a target that appears suddenly and for a very short period of time.
From One-Hour Photo: "According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word "snapshot" was first used in 1808 by an English sportsman by the name of Sir Henry Hawker. He noted in his diary that almost every bird he shot that day was taken by snapshot, meaning a hurried shot, taken without deliberate aim. Snapshot, then, was originally a hunting term." (Despite this being a quote from a screenplay, and hardly authoritative, it is a fairly accurate description of what is in the OED[1] entry for snap-shot; although the diary writer is only identified as "Col. Hawker" and according to this 1893 book review his name was Peter, was known as "the Sportsman," was 22 years old when he made the cited entry, and doesn't appear to be a "Sir".)
According to the OED[2], the term (spelled: snap-shot, also snap shot, snapshot) was first used to refer to "an instantaneous photograph, esp. one taken with a hand-camera" in 1860 in Photogr. News (definition 2). Merriam-Webster OnLine (spelled: snapshot) cites 1890 as the first use, also cited in the OED.
Evolving from the photographic sense, a snapshot can refer to "an impression or view of something brief or transitory" (Merriam-Webster OnLine definition 2), as in a snapshot of the year-to-date sales.
In paintball, snapshooting is the rapid and sporadically repeated firing at a target from behind a bunker.
In submarines, a snap shot is a torpedo fired rapidly back down the bearing of an incoming torpedo, without taking the time to set up a fire control solution.
In FPS gaming, a snapshot is the sudden aim and firing of a gun when unexpectedly spotting an enemy. Usually done by snipers.
This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title.
If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.
^ Compact Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary, 1971, Oxford University Press, p. 2889.