Trigger
Something that sets off a disproportionate emotional reaction — usually because it touches an old wound.
Origin
The clinical sense comes from PTSD research developing in the 1970s and 80s with Vietnam veterans: a sound, smell, or scene that returns the survivor to the trauma. 'Trigger warning' as a content-tag practice grew in online feminist and survivor communities in the early 2000s, then spread to universities and media in the 2010s. The culture-war argument around the term — whether warnings help or coddle — has obscured the underlying clinical idea.
Modern usage
Now operates on three levels at once. (1) Clinical: a stimulus that activates a trauma response. (2) Everyday therapy talk: something that hits a sore spot ('I got triggered in that meeting'). (3) Internet slang: any annoyance ('triggered' as a meme reply, often mocking). The same word means very different things depending on speaker.
In the wild
His tone of voice is a trigger — straight back to my dad yelling.— common usage
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