A sniper is an individual, usually a soldier or law enforcement agent, who specializes in shooting targets with modified rifles from very long distances, usually from a concealed location. Most are skilled in carrying out stealth and camouflage tactics on a battlefield zone. Military snipers are also adept at carrying out methods of infiltration, reconnaissance, and observation techniques.

Etymology

The term sniper was first attested in 1824 in the sense of the word 'sharpshooter'. The verb to snipe originated in the 1770s among soldiers in British India, where a hunter skilled enough to kill the elusive, difficult snipe was dubbed a "sniper".

During the American Civil War, the common term used in the United States, very similar in function to a sniper, was 'skirmisher'. A Civil War army often protected itself by using such soldiers to thwart the enemy from flanking the main body of their attack force. They were deployed individually on the extremes of the moving army primarily to scout for the possibility of an enemy ambush. Consequently, a "skirmish" in this era denotes a clash of small scope between these forces. In general, a skirmish was a limited combat, involving troops other than those of the main body. The term 'sniper' was not in widespread use in the United States until after the American Civil War.Fact: date=March 2008

In the last few decades, the term 'sniper' has been used very loosely. Gun control advocates used this term so loosely that some people even called it sniping when a handgun was used; the term 'sniper rifle' was considered very "scary sounding" and was very effective in inciting fear, evoking a lot of unsettling images, such as "a lone gunman, undetectable, on the hunt".­

The term 'sniper' has been used in more serious tones especially by media in association with police precision riflemen, those responsible for assassination, any shooting from all but the shortest range in war, and any criminal equipped with a rifle in a civil context. In the Bosnian War, and for much of the Siege of Beirut, the term 'sniper' was used to refer to what were generally irregular soldiers who terrorized civilians, mainly by firing at them from windows and rooftops.Fact: date=June 2007 During the Siege of Sarajevo, the main street of the city became known as "Sniper Alley".

This has rather expanded the meaning of the term. It has also given the term 'sniper' mixed connotations. Official sources often use more positive connotative terms to describe snipers, especially for police snipers: counter-sniper, precision marksman, tactical marksman, sharpshooter, precision riflemen, and precision shooter. Some of these alternatives have been in common use for a long time; others are closer to undisguised euphemisms.