aim
Definitions
General English
- verb to point a gun at someone or something
Cricket
- verb to execute a particular batting stroke, without necessarily making contact with the ball
Information & Library Science
- noun what an action or plan is intended to achieve
Military
- noun the act of directing a weapon
- noun (written as AIM)another name for an air-to-air missile (AAM).
- verb to direct a weapon at something
- acronym forair intercept missile (written as AIM)
Sports
- noun a goal or objective
Origin & History of “aim”
Etymologically, aim is a contraction of estimate (see (esteem)). The Latin verb aestimāre became considerably shortened as it developed in the various romance languages (Italian has stimare, for instance, and Provençal esmar). In Old French its descendant was esmer, to which was added the prefix a- (from Latin ad- ‘to’), producing aesmer; and from one or both of these English acquired aim. The notion of estimating or calculating was carried over into the English verb, but died out after about a hundred years. However, the derived sense of calculating, and hence directing, one’s course is of equal antiquity in the language.
