Team Fill-in-the-Blank

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On 2/20/07, Leslie Savan <lsavan at verizon.net> wrote:
>
>        Does anyone have an idea of when or how this construction began =
> to really catch on?: "Team Obama," "Team Macintosh," "Team Get er Done" =
> on MySpace, "Team Guido" (not the Guido team or the Guidoes) on The =
> Amazing Race. "Team Toyota" is a 1996 book, but surely Team X goes much =
> further back.
>        It undoubtedly got a big boost from businesses trying to stoke as =
> much team spirit as sports teams: "Meet Team Target--Targeting Your Real =
> Estate Needs." But who initiated the switch from the X team to Team X: =
> the businesses? Sports commentators, sports teams themselves? (I know =
> nothing about sports, so this may be obvious to all but me). And/or is =
> there a Superhero connection?

One possible source is Formula One/Grand Prix auto racing, where
high-profile team names have included Team Ferrari, Team Lotus, and
Team McLaren. In the case of Team Ferrari, I suppose the "Noun +
Modifier" ordering could be based on Italian via loan-translation
(Wikipedia says Team Ferrari is "liberally translated" from the
Italian name Scuderia Ferrari, lit. "Ferrari Stable"). But Team Lotus
and Team McLaren were based in the U.K., so I don't know what the
explanation would be there.


--Ben Zimmer

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