New words from Sleepy Hollow

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

Here is an example in 1968 of "A-game" in the domain of an actual
game: golf. The name "Lee" in the following passage referred to the
player Lee Elder. The domain of battling supernatural creatures may be
game-like especially when depicted on television, but in JL's example
"A-game" is arguably being used figuratively.

[ref] 1968 August 13, Omaha World-Herald, Nicklaus, Elder Restore
Drama by Jim Murray, Quote Page 16, Column 1, Omaha, Nebraska.
(GenealogyBank)[/ref]

[Begin excerpt]
Lee is never going to be able to say "we'll play even" to some pickup
gang again. Anybody who makes Jack Nicklaus take his A-game out of the
bag and scramble to win is going to give even the reigning club
champion five-a-side from now on.
[End excerpt]

This instance is from a rapid superficial search and should be antedatable.

Urban Dictionary has an entry for "A game".

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=A+game

It was difficult to search for "A-game" in the OED because the search
engine was eager to show me "agame", but I do not think the top-game
sense of "A game" was present.

Garson


On Tue, Jan 21, 2014 at 7:32 PM, Jonathan Lighter
<wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com> wrote:
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: New words from Sleepy Hollow
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Perhaps you missed the "Who cares?" in line one.  So generous of you to
> assume that all readers of this thread, including agents of the OED, are as
> steeped in knowledge as yourself and don't need to build a more powerful
> vocabulary!
>
> This week, George Washington had himself resurrected by Catholic priests
> (just for a few days) so he could lead Ich and Ab in the 21st century to a
> map buried with him showing how to reach Purgatory from Sleepy Hollow.
>  (It's within walking distance.) Won't bore you with the details, but in
> the final scene (a real cliffhanger!), a magickally resurrected dude, a
> witch sprung from Purg by a lady cop, *and* the Fully Headed Second
> Horseman of the Apocalypse were yelling at each other about Coming
> Destruction - and they're all  family!  Tune in This Fall to sort it out..
>
> Gotta love that Post-Mod By-God Washington Irving.
>
> The only linguistically interesting moment - and the sole point of this
> note - was, "Not to bury the lead, but [Moloch's stirring up more shit]!"
>
> In other words, (ironically) "Not to beat around the bush."  The once
> arcane journalistic dictum "Never bury your lead" may be poised to spread
> to the masses. But Victor is surely ahead of the curve on that one too.
>
> JL
>
>
> On Tue, Jan 21, 2014 at 6:12 PM, Victor Steinbok <aardvark66 at gmail.com>wrote:
>
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> -----------------------
>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       Victor Steinbok <aardvark66 at GMAIL.COM>
>> Subject:      Re: New words from Sleepy Hollow
>>
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> Familiar with timesuck, but it's nothing compared to the "A-game" and
>> "besties". I hope you were joking about these being new. "Besties" might
>> have been teen slang a decade ago--or maybe two. But "A-game" sounds
>> completely familiar for much longer than that and more associated with
>> adults.
>>
>>      VS-)
>>
>> On 1/20/2014 8:13 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>> > ...Last week:
>> >
>> > "A boondoggle is an exercise in futility, a timesuck, a fool's errand."
>> >
>> > (So "timesuck" is now thought to be more familiar than "boondoggle."
>> > 400,000 raw Google hits.)
>> >
>> > "We weren't exactly besties back then." (Best friends. 2,000,000 raw
>> > Googlits.)
>> >
>> > "We need your A-game!"  (Your best and most comprehensive effort [to beat
>> > Moloch]. Maybe a hundred thou RG's: hard to search for.)
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>
>
>
>
> --
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>
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