[Ads-l] Antedating of "Great Game"

[Shapiro, Fred]

Since the context of the 1804 citation is the geopolitics of India rather than the geopolitics of Central Asia, Larry is probably correct that the 1804 citation should be placed in square brackets.

Fred Shapiro



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From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
Sent: Sunday, June 23, 2024 8:08 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Subject: Re: Antedating of "Great Game"

> On Jun 23, 2024, at 5:32 PM, Shapiro, Fred <fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU> wrote:
>
> Great Game (OED 1841)
>
> 1804 Arthur Wellesley _Letter to Colonel Murray_ 2 May in _The Dispatches of Field Marshal the Duke of Wellington_ (1837) 3: 297-8
>
> You now have a great game on your hands.
>
> Fred Shapiro
>
Should this be bracketed? I’m wondering about the context of “a great game” rather than one in which “the great game” (or “the Great Game”) clearly involves the presupposition that it refers to the skirmishes about the major powers over control of Southwest Asia…

LH
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