gamesmanship = 'sportsmanship'

[Garson O'Toole]

The word gamesmanship was used in the title of a book, The Theory and
Practice of Gamesmanship by Stephen Potter, in 1947. That is the first
OED citation. But Google Books presents a match that it claims has an
earlier date of 1939, Friends in Aspic by Ian Coster:

http://books.google.com/books?id=gSC1AAAAIAAJ&q=gamesmanship#search_anchor

WorldCat agrees with the 1939 date of publication for the first
edition. Indeed, WorldCat only lists 1939 editions.

Probing the work with different years gives a match in 1939. I have
not been able to cast suspicion on the GB date using date probes yet.
All the other early matches in GB seem to be connected to the book by
Stephen Potter in 1947.

Yes, it might be worth attempting to check "Friends in Aspic" on
paper. Unfortunately, it is not available in a library I can reach
directly.

Garson

On Fri, Sep 10, 2010 at 1:17 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: gamesmanship = 'sportsmanship'
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> At 1:02 PM -0400 9/10/10, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>>2002 Ruth Glancy _Thematic Guide to British Poetry_ (Westport, Conn.:
>>Greenwood Press) 265: The famous old expression that the Battle of Waterloo
>>was won on the playing fields of Eton summed up the long-held belief that
>>the principles of gamesmanship and good manners taught in the schools of
>>young gentlemen were all that were needed to defeat the barbarous enemy.
>>
>>The association of "gamesmanship" with "good manners" and "young gentlemen"
>>in opposition to the "barbarous enemy,"  as well as the general context of
>>the passage, scotches the idea that what's meant is the usual sense of
>>"gamesmanship."
>>
>>In 2002  Prof. Glancy was Associate Professor of English at Concordia
>>University in Alberta.
>>
> And with this innovative ameliorated sense in mind, Ms. Glancy would
> be less likely to commit the malapropism of the basketball announcer
> who commented yesterday on the "gamesmanshit" of the two coaches
> quibbling about the outcome of the 1972 Olympics medal game.
>
> I see the OED has only one entry for "gamesmanship", 'Skill in
> winning games, esp. by means that barely qualify as legitimate'.  The
> last cite at the entry contrasts the two traits from Jon's  subject
> line:
>
> 1967 Times 8 Apr. 13/6 Sportsmanship..is a switched-off word that has
> lost ground to gamesmanship.
>
> LH
>
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