"GOLFING" - is it a word?

[Grammar queen]

Touché. When I said sorry, I was just mimicking @iacas. I think the term "golfing" has been accepted into our language simply because so many people use it. That doesn't validate it, but that's what I think has happened. I agree that many people who say golfING are not golfers. The next time my tennis playing friends ask me if I'm going golfing, I'll ask then when they're going tennising. MAybe then we can stem this tide! ?

[billchao]

6 minutes ago, Grammar queen said:

I think the term "golfing" has been accepted into our language simply because so many people use it. That doesn't validate it, but that's what I think has happened.

Unfortunately that's how the English language evolves, whether one likes it or not. Once a word becomes accepted into use (and in this case it happened over a hundred years ago), it becomes a "real" word. I use real in quotes because there's actually no accepted authority over what is "real" or not in the English language anyway.

This phenomenon can also happen in the inverse. Ain't used to be a proper contraction until it became commonly used by the lower-class and subsequently snubbed because of it. There's a short skit on Adam Ruins Everything about this, here.

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BTW, when you want to @mention someone, you need to click their name when it pops up as you type the mention out or it won't work. Your tag of @iacas didn't work properly because you can't just type their name out.

Welcome to TST.

[RandallT]

40 minutes ago, Grammar queen said:

MAybe then we can stem this tide! ?

I wouldn’t consider the tide stemmed until you can convince either Merriam or Webster to alter their stance on the issue. 

40 minutes ago, Grammar queen said:

I think the term "golfing" has been accepted into our language simply because so many people use it.

Bingo. And this is how it should be. Nobody should decide rules of our language, although we are each free to have our own standards.

I judge people all the time based on their vocabulary or grammar.  But that’s using my own set of rules and preferences- I don’t expect everyone else to agree with mine.

For me, “golf” seems fine as a verb. I just don’t buy the “you don’t go tennis-ing” argument at all. 

[Grammar queen]

Thanks for the info. I've never been part of a blog (?) before, so I don't know how things work. I will try and do this right in the future!

[billchao]

2 minutes ago, Grammar queen said:

Thanks for the info. I've never been part of a blog (?) before, so I don't know how things work. I will try and do this right in the future!

Feel free to ask if you have any questions. We have plenty of other content on the site you can explore, just please don't go around correcting everyone's grammar 

[Fernando]

So, is there a definite answer to the question?

 

[boogielicious]

10 hours ago, billchao said:

Unfortunately that's how the English language evolves, whether one likes it or not. Once a word becomes accepted into use (and in this case it happened over a hundred years ago), it becomes a "real" word. I use real in quotes because there's actually no accepted authority over what is "real" or not in the English language anyway.

This phenomenon can also happen in the inverse. Ain't used to be a proper contraction until it became commonly used by the lower-class and subsequently snubbed because of it. There's a short skit on Adam Ruins Everything about this, here.

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BTW, when you want to @mention someone, you need to click their name when it pops up as you type the mention out or it won't work. Your tag of @iacas didn't work properly because you can't just type their name out.

Welcome to TST.

I would revise your statement to "Fortunately". That is the beauty of the English language, it is constantly evolving and it not remotely pure. Sometimes, crappy words or grammar make it in, but for the most part, it pulls in words and phrases from all other languages and they become part of the lexicon. The English we speak now is far from the early versions.

[dennyjones]

4 minutes ago, boogielicious said:

I would revise your statement to "Fortunately". That is the beauty of the English language, it is constantly evolving and it not remotely pure. Sometimes, crappy words or grammar make it in, but for the most part, it pulls in words and phrases from all other languages and they become part of the lexicon. The English we speak now is far from the early versions.

A little off topic but Google is now a common word in the English language and considered both a noun and a verb.  

[boogielicious]

Just now, dennyjones said:

A little off topic but Google is now a common word in the English language and considered both a noun and a verb.  

Perfect example. It is also is far from the original meaning, 10¹⁰⁰ . 

Golf is a verb now whether we like it or not.

[billchao]

21 minutes ago, boogielicious said:

I would revise your statement to "Fortunately". That is the beauty of the English language, it is constantly evolving and it not remotely pure. Sometimes, crappy words or grammar make it in, but for the most part, it pulls in words and phrases from all other languages and they become part of the lexicon. The English we speak now is far from the early versions.

Yea it was an adverb from an earlier thought. I changed the statement but apparently left the word.

I'm all for the constantly evolving nature of the language. I take issue with some of its convoluted grammar rules TBH. While I try to write as academically as I am capable of (I'm no English major), I also tend to write the way I would speak. Plus, I deliberately use words and other phrases that grammar enthusiasts would frown upon, like "golfing" or "gaming" and "ain't".

[Hacker James]

as verbose and over engaging in the vernacular as I tend to be on occasion, I am a bit conflicted owing to the influence of other languages I have been exposed to entering into my vocabulary.  "I sometimes simply talk too much, also".

Edited November 26, 2017 by Hacker James

[Yukari]

11 hours ago, Fernando said:

So, is there a definite answer to the question?

 

Like most things in life ... no.  Nothing is definite except for math.  Since languages (any and all languages) are constantly evolving, nothing is definite.

[Fourputt]

Here's how I see it.  Golf is primarily a noun, but it has become a limited usage verb.  I don't have any issue with the term used in the manner of:  "Jim is one of my best golfing buddies."  However, saying something like "I golf every Sunday." is an awkward usage of the word.

Not all verbs lend themselves to complete conjugation and golf falls into that grouping.  Speaking of "golfing" is common and acceptable.  Saying that you "golfed" is crude and just a bit ignorant.  And yes Erik, saying "He golfed the ball" is pretty low-brow.  Just because baseball commentators use it doesn't make it right.

Some forms or tenses just don't roll off the tongue, and should be passed up for the more comfortable phrases such as "playing golf", or "played golf".  English is an irregular language with many inconsistencies, and many verbs with irregular or incomplete conjugations.  In my opinion, "golfing" just one of those oddities that makes English a difficult second language. (for some, it has proven to be a difficult first language) 

Even stating it as an infinitive sounds a bit off to my ear: "to golf".  I have never, and will never in my life go out "to golf".  Ain't gonna happen.

Edited November 26, 2017 by Fourputt

[iacas]

41 minutes ago, Fourputt said:

Here's how I see it.  Golf is primarily a noun, but it has become a limited usage verb.  I don't have any issue with the term used in the manner of:  "Jim is one of my best golfing buddies."  However, saying something like "I golf every Sunday." is an awkward usage of the word.

Though I don't really like the second example (and "Jim is one of my best golf buddies" sounds better to me, to adjust the first), "I golf every Sunday" still sounds a little better than "one of my golfing buddies." In comparison. To me.

41 minutes ago, Fourputt said:

Saying that you "golfed" is crude and just a bit ignorant.  And yes Erik, saying "He golfed the ball" is pretty low-brow.  Just because baseball commentators use it doesn't make it right.

I think it's kinda snobby of you to say it's low-brow. You just don't like it; doesn't mean it's low-brow. And "golfed" in that context is perfectly accurate: the batter swung at a very low pitch like a golf swing and "golfed" it out to left field or over the wall or whatever.

Golfers all "golf" their ball. They also hit it, fat it, etc. Heck, golfers use the word FAT as a verb. Or "thin." "Oh, I thinned that one." "Oh, I fatted the hell out of that shot." "I shanked it!" All are nouns we've turned into verbs. Nouns, btw, have a long history of being turned into verbs. Even proper nouns like Xerox. People would say "I xeroxed the contract." Fax? Same thing. Nobody says "I sent a facsimile of the contract to Ted." They say "I faxed the contract to Ted."

https://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/golf-devil-ball-golf/a-look-back-at-the-2006-british-open--when-tiger-woods-outsmarted-everyone-202532822.html

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Not only do you have to have flawless blueprints, but you have to execute them if you really want to contend, and Woods was almost perfect with the way he golfed his ball that week.

Shane Bacon likely knows more about writing about golf than you do (or I do). I've heard "he's golfing his ball so well this week" from long-time golf commentators, too. It stands out - a little - almost every time, but it's used and accepted and more common than you seem to realize.

https://www.golfdigest.com/story/20080610sirak

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And since Anderson won three Opens in a row right after the turn of the century (not this century, the last one), I'm thinking he golfed his ball pretty well, also.

Ron Sirak likely knows a bit about golf, writing, etc. too. No?

Neither are, so far as I know, baseball commentators, Rick.

[Fourputt]

Erik, you made the baseball reference - I was just following your lead on that.  Just because someone writes or comments with certain terminology doesn't necessarily make them right.  Just because something sounds wrong to my ear that doesn't necessarily make it wrong in common usage, even though it may not be  as grammatically correct as it could be. 

There are many colloquialism's which have found their way into the dictionary, but there are also many which have never been accepted as proper English despite being in regular common use.  That's just the nature of a living language.  It's why Latin is used universally for law and science, because as a dead language it doesn't change from generation to generation.  The meanings of words don't vary from their historical definitions like they can in a living language.

I learned to refer to our game as "playing golf" and I will continue to speak of it in those terms.  It's just how I do it.

[iacas]

8 minutes ago, Fourputt said:

Erik, you made the baseball reference - I was just following your lead on that.

Yeah. And I responded to your response…?

8 minutes ago, Fourputt said:

Just because someone writes or comments with certain terminology doesn't necessarily make them right.

So you're going with "Ron Sirak and Shane Bacon are wrong"?

8 minutes ago, Fourputt said:

I learned to refer to our game as "playing golf" and I will continue to speak of it in those terms.  It's just how I do it.

Okay, but you called it low-brow, and made some other comments about how it's "right" or "wrong" and seem to have ignored that "golf" is a verb in two major dictionaries (and likely several others). So again… huh? You responded without actually responding to the discussion. Cool on the Latin bit - I agree/know - but… are you sticking with "Sirak/Bacon are wrong"? Or are you going to revise it to remove the "low-brow" bit and/or to just say that it's purely your opinion and you're just staying old-school?

What about how we as golfers use the word "fat" and "thin" as verbs? Surely you'd agree using "golf" as a verb is less bad than that. No?

On 2/13/2015 at 1:53 PM, Fourputt said:

To be honest, when I read someone saying that they "golfed today", to my eye, that's no more than a semi-literate statement.  Sure, I know what they mean, but I just figure that they must have had a substandard education.  They are usually the same ones who don't know that there are three different spellings for "there", "their", and "they're", and that they have widely varying meanings.  That "too", and "to" don't mean the same thing.  I could go on, but I've made my point.

This was in response to me pointing out that the word "golf" is a verb in the dictionary, and you compare it to someone saying "there" when they mean "they're." It's a ridiculous position to take, frankly. I'm not a big fan of the word "golf" as a verb, but I accept that it's considered proper English, and don't infer anything about a "substandard education."

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At the end of the day it's not "just how you do it." You make negative judgments of others who do it differently, in an dictionary-acceptable way.

That's fine, because I suspect few people here really care what others think of them, but at least fess up to it. Own it.

[Fernando]

12 hours ago, boogielicious said:

I would revise your statement to "Fortunately". That is the beauty of the English language, it is constantly evolving and it not remotely pure. Sometimes, crappy words or grammar make it in, but for the most part, it pulls in words and phrases from all other languages and they become part of the lexicon. The English we speak now is far from the early versions.

That's very true! The US English language has gone thru changes much more rapidly than any other. Maybe that's why it's known as the main business language around the world!

[Patch]

IDK, after rethinking this, I am comfortable saying "I go golfing to play the game of golf". It does sound better than baseballing, footballing or, basketballing.... 

Edited November 27, 2017 by Patch