"gun play"?

[Jonathan Lighter]

CNN is characterizing the locker-room showdown between pistol-packin' NBA
millionaires as "gunplay," though no shots were fired.

JL

On Sun, Jan 3, 2010 at 11:40 AM, Amy West <medievalist at w-sts.com> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Amy West <medievalist at W-STS.COM>
> Subject:      Re: "gun play"?
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> >Date:    Sat, 2 Jan 2010 10:33:03 -0500
> >From:    Robin Hamilton <robin.hamilton2 at BTINTERNET.COM>
> >Subject: Re: "gun play"?
> >
> >From: "Dave Wilton" <dave at WILTON.NET>
> >
> >>  The MED has many examples of the martial sense of play in Middle
> English,
> >>  plei(e sense 4. Ex. from Lydgate's "Siege of Thebes" (a. 1450): "This
> was
> >>  the play and the mortal game Atwen Thebans and the Grekys."
> >>
> >>  Most of the Middle English cites continue this trope of conflating
> warfare
> >>  and sport. I can't find any examples of compounds like "swordplay" or
> >>  "shieldplay" (lindplegan) though.
> >
> >Most of the LEME cites seem to relate to writers like Cicero who would be
> >better known in the Renaissance than in the Middle Ages, and predominantly
> >relate to gladiators and gladiatorial games.  Is it possible that "sword
> >play" and "sword player" are re-introduced to English at this point, and
> >thus independent of the earlier forms?  With "swordplayer" initially being
> a
> >term specifically applied to gladiators, and later extending its meaning
> to
> >take in swordsmen in general?
>
> I'm going to shoot from the hip and say no. There are only 1 or 2
> English fencing guides (in verse) from the 1400s, but they're not
> relying on Latin (and no, I haven't looked to see if they use "play"
> or "swordplay". I haven't read them.) But you can see that the use is
> there in OE and I think that the Middle English examples Dave Wilton
> has dug up show the continued use. In the later German and Italian
> manuals of the 1500s we do see the influence of Latinate learning and
> Renaissance ideas of science and geometry, but not in the earlier
> manuals.
>
> I think the LEME results are skewed towards showing Latin influence
> because of what's in their database.
>
> --- Amy West
>
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