TOURNAMENT

Wild Word Friday!

My father is an avid golfer. At age 84 he can still come close to shooting his age – last week scoring an 85 on 18 holes. I’m proud of him, and I know one of the disappointments of his life is that I am NOT a golfer or an athlete by any standard. Aside from the fact that I am not at all coordinated, I know that I just couldn’t handle the rigors of golf TOURNAMENTs. I cave under pressure, at least when it comes to physical performance. 

Did you know that the first TOURNAMENTs (according to Medieval sources and The Chronology of Words and Phrasesby Linda and Roger Flavell) were not golf TOURNAMENTs but mock battles. These battles were perportedly staged to help a knight ready himself for the real thing. They were fought in open fields and with real weapons. Yikes! The modern golf TOURNAMENT pales in comparison, doesn’t it?

The word TOURNAMENT stems from a Greek word, tomos, which refers to the compass used by a carpenter. You probably remember that type of compass from grade school. We used them in math classes to draw perfect circles. From Greek to Latin tomos became tomas, which means lathe. Again note the reference to turning, this time turning a chunk of wood into a spindle or a table leg. From there, we travel to the Old French and come up with torneier, a reference to a jousting match. I’ve never seen a real jousting match, but I understand from television and movie versions that part of jousting is to turn your horse and make another try at your intended victim. So we’re still turning, at least until we get to English.

In the thirteenth century, Middle English borrowed the word tornement from the Old French, and now we use the word TOURNAMENT for many athletic competitions, not just the ones that require someone to turn around and try again.

Q4U: Are/were you an athlete or are you more like me, inclined to be a spectator?