game

英文词源

game

game: There are two games in English. The noun game ‘pastime, sport’ [OE] used to be a fairly widespread word in the Germanic languages (Swedish and Danish still preserve it as gamman and gammen respectively) and may well go back to a prehistoric Germanic compound formed from the collective prefix *ga- and *mann- ‘person’ (source of English man), and denoting literally ‘people together, participating’.

Its Old English was gamen which, before it became reduced to game (a process which began in the 13th century but was not complete until the 16th century), bequeathed gammon (as in backgammon) and probably also gamble to modern English. Game ‘plucky’ [18] is probably an adjectival use of the same word. Game ‘lame’ [18], however, and its derivative gammy [19], are not related; they may come from archaic French gambi ‘crooked’.
=> gamble, man; gammy

game (adj.2)

"ready for action, unafraid, and up to the task;" probably literally "spirited as a game-cock," 1725, from game-cock "bird bred for fighting" (1670s), from game (n.) in the "sport, amusement" sense. Middle English adjectives gamesome, gamelich meant "joyful, playful, sportive."

game (n.)

c. 1200, from Old English gamen "joy, fun; game, amusement," common Germanic (cognates: Old Frisian game "joy, glee," Old Norse gaman "game, sport; pleasure, amusement," Old Saxon gaman, Old High German gaman "sport, merriment," Danish gamen, Swedish gamman "merriment"), said to be identical with Gothic gaman "participation, communion," from Proto-Germanic *ga- collective prefix + *mann "person," giving a sense of "people together."

The -en was lost perhaps through being mistaken for a suffix. Meaning "contest for success or superiority played according to rules" is first attested c. 1200 (of athletic contests, chess, backgammon). Especially "the sport of hunting, fishing, hawking, or fowling" (c. 1300), thus "wild animals caught for sport" (c. 1300), which is the game in fair game (see under fair (adj.)), also gamey. Meaning "number of points required to win a game" is from 1830. Game plan is 1941, from U.S. football; game show first attested 1961.

game (adj.1)

"lame," 1787, from north Midlands dialect, of unknown origin, perhaps a variant of gammy (tramps' slang) "bad," or from Old North French gambe "leg" (see gambol (n.)).

game (v.)

Middle English gamen "to sport, joke, jest," from Old English gamenian "to play, jest, joke;" see game (n.). The Middle English word is little recorded from c. 1400 and modern use for "to play at games" (1520s) probably is a new formation from the noun; and it might have been re-re-coined late 20c. in reference to computer games. Related: Gamed; gaming.