I don't think we used that exact terminology, but back in the '70s in the real-time interrupt-driven world, the concept was there. In fact, if you had used that phrase at that time, everyone would have grasped the meaning.
Indeed, when I was firing those rubber bands, I didn't think I'd coined some truly novel piece of terminology. It seemed like a fairly obvious word, especially given the use of "trigger" in the SQL world.
Ah, it starts to come back! In SQL, "trigger" is a noun, not a verb. It refers to a stored procedure that's executed in response to some event.
I knew "trigger" could also be used as a verb, of course, but it seemed that it might be confusing to use it that way given its meaning in SQL. So that's when I started searching for words and firing rubber bands.
I might have fired up something else too, but that's a story for another day...
