the term gamed

[Golfingdad]

Maybe it isn't the brightest thing to take your lead in grammar from baseball.  It has long been acknowledged that baseball players are among the poorest educated among the players of any major sport.  So many are drafted right out of high school and receive their "higher" education in the minors, with little or no college.  Despite the relatively low state of our educational system, there still has to be some advantage to having a college degree.

It's that "Who cares?" attitude which is part of the problem.  Who cares that kids are no longer receiving much in the way of a basic education?  They don't need to actually know anything since they can depend on calculators and computers and spellcheckers to cover their shortcomings, right?  While these are all wonderful tools, which I use regularly, what do these people do when put in a situation where such tools aren't available?  Mostly they fail.  Taking our lead for the future of our language from such people is a poorly founded road.  It's a lot like learning the Rules of Golf from someone who has never actually seen the rule book.

Don't forget that ...

A) I wasn't justifying it as a scholarly word by claiming it came from baseball; I was simply pointing out that I think the word was older than suggested.  I was just doing a little bit of "etymologizing." ;)

B)  We're talking about one silly slang word here ... not the downfall of the American Education system.  That's why "who cares" applies.

[FlappyGilmore]

I think that we should only start to worry when young players start to say, "I just jizzed on the ball." after a good shot.

[Fourputt]

Don't forget that ...

A) I wasn't justifying it as a scholarly word by claiming it came from baseball; I was simply pointing out that I think the word was older than suggested.  I was just doing a little bit of "etymologizing." ;)

B)  We're talking about one silly slang word here ... not the downfall of the American Education system.  That's why "who cares" applies.

The slippery slope always starts somewhere...

[bkuehn1952]

Their are a lot of times that persons use words uncorrectly or insert slang into language.  I try not to let them situations tie my shorts into a not and just go with the flow.

[BuckeyeNut]

Ya I know its a stupid question but when did people start saying I gamed xyz driver or I game the bridgestone ball? Sounds strange to me. Lol the things I come up with on a rainy/snowy morning.

I suspect anyone who says the above spends a lot more time playing video games than golf.......LOL

[Hardballs]

I think that we should only start to worry when young players start to say, "I just jizzed on the ball." after a good shot.

I'm worried you even suggested we should be worried about this! That's worse than ... You wanna cup some balls?

[caniac6]

I spelled "carez" with a z as a joke, but really, who cares? I'm almost sixty years old, and I'm sure that when I was young there was slang that drove my parents crazy. I went to college with some basketball players from Brooklyn and the Bronx, and I learned a whole lot of new words from those guys. I grew up in the North, but have lived in NC since 1975, and people from rural areas in the South have their own way of talking. Instead of worrying about the fall of the English language, listen, embrace the diversity, learn.

[sofingaw]

I'm pretty surprised by this thread and some of the responses, to be honest. While not college educated, I'm not a moron by any stretch.

I think saying that you are gaming some type of equipment simply means that you are using it in a game. The baseball glove example is a good one, IMO. It's the glove used for games, or, the 'gamer'. Why can't golf clubs be 'gamers', which are 'gamed', to replace the terms 'played with', 'played', etc. every once in a while? It's fun, if nothing else.

I hardly think this (non-vulgar, unoffensive) slang term is as worrisome as some of the other issues facing golf, or our society in general. It also doesn't sound all that silly to me.

I would apologize for sucking the fun out of bashing this term, but if some of you guys correct people in person for their everyday speech the way you have in this thread, then I don't imagine you ever have much fun with words, anyhow!

The 'GET IN THE HOLE!!! MASHED POTATOES TIGERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!" crap is much more irritating and worrisome to me, for one example.

[Fourputt]

I spelled "carez" with a z as a joke, but really, who cares? I'm almost sixty years old, and I'm sure that when I was young there was slang that drove my parents crazy. I went to college with some basketball players from Brooklyn and the Bronx, and I learned a whole lot of new words from those guys. I grew up in the North, but have lived in NC since 1975, and people from rural areas in the South have their own way of talking. Instead of worrying about the fall of the English language, listen, embrace the diversity, learn.

Except that when we were in school, they were still teaching us kids how to read and write proper English, or at least the Americanized version  of it - basic communication skills which you didn't have to live in a chat room to understand.  These days I often wonder what is actually being taught, when I feel that as a high school graduate, I have a better general education (reading, writing, history, etc.) than the typical college grad.  I base this not on what I see on internet fora, which while often deplorable, is still just a glorified chat room, but I base it on work resumes I've read, on so called "professional" correspondence, both paper and electronic.  Mistakes in basic grammar, punctuation, usage, and spelling can be atrocious.

That is what I mean by starting down a slippery slope.  Once you allow some momentum to be gained, it's very difficult to stop the trend.  My neighbor brought his granddaughter here to the Bahamas from California so that she could actually get some sort of a decent general education before heading off to college (and she is reveling in the change - she loves school here, even though she has to wear a uniform, can't take a cell phone or wear makeup to school).  If that doesn't make a statement about the condition of the US education system, then we are reading the signals from very different angles.

[Stretch]

" We live in a decaying age. Young people no longer respect their parents. They are rude and impatient. They frequently inhabit taverns and have no self control. "
Inscription, 6000 year-old Egyptian tomb

"When I was young, we were taught to be discreet and respectful of elders, but the present youth are exceedingly disrespectful and impatient of restraint."
Hesiod, 8th century BC

"What is happening to our young people? They disrespect their elders, they disobey their parents. They ignore the law. They riot in the streets inflamed with wild notions. Their morals are decaying. What is to become of them?"
Plato, 4th Century BC

"The young people of today think of nothing but themselves. They have no reverence for parents or old age. They are impatient of all restraint... As for the girls, they are forward, immodest and unladylike in speech, behavior and dress."
Attributed to Peter the Hermit, AD 1274

Etc. etc. etc.

[Fourputt]

"We live in a decaying age. Young people no longer respect their parents. They are rude and impatient. They frequently inhabit taverns and have no self control."

Inscription, 6000 year-old Egyptian tomb

"When I was young, we were taught to be discreet and respectful of elders, but the present youth are exceedingly disrespectful and impatient of restraint."

Hesiod, 8th century BC

"What is happening to our young people? They disrespect their elders, they disobey their parents. They ignore the law. They riot in the streets inflamed with wild notions. Their morals are decaying. What is to become of them?"

Plato, 4th Century BC

"The young people of today think of nothing but themselves. They have no reverence for parents or old age. They are impatient of all restraint... As for the girls, they are forward, immodest and unladylike in speech, behavior and dress."

Attributed to Peter the Hermit, AD 1274

Etc. etc. etc.

All of which has nothing to do with the decline in the educational system in the US today.  This isn't just opinion, it's fact.  It's provable by simply comparing test results on basic subjects from 40-50 years ago to those of today.

[Robster 7]

When we have to rely on professional sportsmen and women to be the ones who uphold the traditions of the English language, the rest is all downhill. My personal favourite is ' I played excellent today' when in fact they played excellently - However, I do realise that they skipped most of their English classes to go and beat balls on the range so I cut them some slack!

[turtleback]

All of which has nothing to do with the decline in the educational system in the US today.  This isn't just opinion, it's fact.  It's provable by simply comparing test results on basic subjects from 40-50 years ago to those of today.

Maybe it would be more accurate to compare computer skills of today to those of 40-50 years ago?  Or compare the farming skills of kids 40-50 years ago with those of kids 100-120 years ago?

Context is everything.

[rehmwa]

Maybe it would be more accurate to compare computer skills of today to those of 40-50 years ago?  Or compare the farming skills of kids 40-50 years ago with those of kids 100-120 years ago?

Context is everything.

absolutely

My daughter is a senior in high school and she's taking course content that I didn't see until my sophomore year in college.  And I was top of my high school class and passed out of all prep and intro classes my first college year.

The kids are learning a lot MORE than guys like us ever did.

The issue is the social policies in today's schools that are forced on them by the PC thuggery of government and oddball school boards.  The actual education is excellent and a ton better than a couple generations ago.  General societal drift from individualism and responsibility is a total picture thing, pinning it to the schools is a lazy cop out.

[turtleback]

absolutely

My daughter is a senior in high school and she's taking course content that I didn't see until my sophomore year in college.  And I was top of my high school class and passed out of all prep and intro classes my first college year.

The kids are learning a lot MORE than guys like us ever did.

The issue is the social policies in today's schools that are forced on them by the PC thuggery of government and oddball school boards.  The actual education is excellent and a ton better than a couple generations ago.  General societal drift from individualism and responsibility is a total picture thing, pinning it to the schools is a lazy cop out.

That may be true for the bright kids (although just because they take higher course content doesn't mean they are learning it to the depth that my generation did - I tutor a lot of top kids in calculus and their biggest problem is a lack of real mastery in algebraic manipulation).  But for the middle and low kids it is not true.  Because until HS they are supposed to learn the same things, to the same mastery level, in the same amount of time, as the bright kids.  One-size fits all is a terrible paradigm for education.

[dfreuter415]

I think that we should only start to worry when young players start to say, "I just jizzed on the ball."

Isn't that what Gaylord Perry said after throwing a good pitch (spitball)?  LOL

[dfreuter415]

I think saying that you are gaming some type of equipment simply means that you are using it in a game. The baseball glove example is a good one, IMO. It's the glove used for games, or, the 'gamer'. Why can't golf clubs be 'gamers', which are 'gamed', to replace the terms 'played with', 'played', etc. every once in a while? It's fun, if nothing else.

I'm from an older generation and my first impression when someone says "gamer" is that they are referring to a person (not an inanimate object) who gives their all in the sport that they are playing. When I looked it up online it says that a gamer is a person who plays a game, especially a role-playing or computer game. But when I was a young man we did not have computers, so a gamer was someone like Kellen Winslow in a 1982 playoff game against Miami.  From Wikipedia, "Winslow caught a playoff record 13 passes for 166 yards and a touchdown, while also blocking a field goal with seconds remaining to send the game to overtime in one of the greatest single player efforts in NFL history." Miami did win that game 41-38. Winslow, to me, was a "gamer." (It must be noted that San Diego lost to Cincinnati, 27–7, the following week in a game that was played in the coldest temperature in NFL history in terms of wind chill.  Air temperature was −9 °, but the wind chill was −37 °F.)

Ya I know its a stupid question but when did people start saying I gamed xyz driver or I game the bridgestone ball? Sounds strange to me. Lol the things I come up with on a rainy/snowy morning.

To an old guy like me, the term "gamed," means to manipulate a situation in a way that is corrupt or dishonest. So, to say "I gamed the xyz driver," would not mean that the person simply used the driver.  Gaming the xyz driver would indicate that they used the driver unscrupulously, perhaps by having an illegal COR (Coefficient of Restitution) of more than .83.

I do understand evolution of the American vernacular, and in some respects it is a very interesting subject. However, that doesn't mean that I have to like it, nor do I have to accept it or use it.  I guess that is why I loved Stretch's posting, because it shows how seniors feel about younger generations...

Inscription, 6000 year-old Egyptian tomb

Etc. etc. etc.

[ScouseJohnny]

I can't stand the term "gamed" in it's modern, golf related context.

Also, the loss of the indefinite article is another one that upsets my pedantic sensibilities, I much prefer "I hit a 3 wood on the the 1st tee," as opposed to the contemporary, "I hit 3 wood..."

A 3 wood, to my mind, is not an abstract noun...