Going back a bit further, the wadcutter bullet was adopted for target shooting because it cuts a clean hole. In target shooting, any shot that cuts the line between scoring rings counts as the higher value, so a nice clean hole is important in scoring a target. (Round nose bullets make a ragged hole and scoring is much more difficult.)
The term comes from shotshell reloading. In the old days, most people who loaded shotshells made their own wads by cutting them out of paper or cardboard, using a device not unlike a common cookie cutter. Naturally, the "wadcutter" made a neat round hole in the cardboard, and the bullet that made a neat round hole in the target came to be called a "wadcutter."
The semi-wadcutter bullet was designed to allow greater weight and penetration while retaining a sharp edge for use on targets.
Jim