[Ads-l] Antedating of "Great Game"

[Geoffrey Nathan]

I'm sure this is entirely my ignorance, but,
having read Kipling's Kim,
and Laurie King's 'sequel' The Game I had
always assumed the term referred to
espionage, especially Great Power espionage
in that region, as illustrated in those books.
Strongly recommend rereading Kim, incidentally,
And then reading The Game.

Geoff



Geoffrey S. Nathan
WSU Information Privacy Officer (Retired)
Emeritus Professor, Linguistics Program
http://blogs.wayne.edu/proftech/

geoffnathan at wayne.edu

Nobody at Wayne State will EVER ask you for your password. Never send it to anyone in an email, no matter how authentic the email looks.

________________________________
From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
Sent: Monday, June 24, 2024 3:29 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Subject: Re: Antedating of "Great Game"

[EXTERNAL]

---------------------- 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: Antedating of "Great Game"
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That could well be, but my initial point was that introducing the =
concept of a free-for-all among (some of) the great powers of Europe for =
dominance over the region (whether Southwest Asia, Central Asia, or the =
Indian subcontinent and adjacent areas) by suggesting that you (sc., =
those powers) =E2=80=9Cnow have a great game on your hands=E2=80=9D does =
*not* presuppose an established referential connection between =E2=80=9Cgr=
eat game=E2=80=9D and that political and military contest that since =
1841 has been referred to as the Great Game (upper-cased or not).  =
Compare the situation in which the sub-assistant to the dynastic ruler =
of the Chinese emperor contemplates the horizon and inscribes a journal =
entry =E2=80=9CThis would an excellent site for a great wall=E2=80=9D.  =
I assume this would, if confirmed, appear in square brackets within a =
putative OED entry for Great Wall.  (I see that there=E2=80=99s actually =
no entry for Great Wall, but only one for Chinese Wall, so mutatis =
mutandis.)

LH

> On Jun 24, 2024, at 3:13 PM, Dan Goncharoff <thegonch at GMAIL.COM> =
wrote:
>=20
> But the geopolitics of Central Asia WAS the geopolitics of India at =
the
> beginning of the 19th century.
> DanG
>=20
>=20
> On Sun, Jun 23, 2024 at 8:57=E2=80=AFPM Shapiro, Fred =
<fred.shapiro at yale.edu> wrote:
>=20
>> 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.
>>=20
>> Fred Shapiro
>>=20
>>=20
>>=20
>> ________________________________
>> 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"
>>=20
>>> On Jun 23, 2024, at 5:32 PM, Shapiro, Fred <fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU>
>> wrote:
>>>=20
>>> Great Game (OED 1841)
>>>=20
>>> 1804 Arthur Wellesley _Letter to Colonel Murray_ 2 May in _The
>> Dispatches of Field Marshal the Duke of Wellington_ (1837) 3: 297-8
>>>=20
>>> You now have a great game on your hands.
>>>=20
>>> Fred Shapiro
>>>=20
>> Should this be bracketed? I=E2=80=99m wondering about the context of =
=E2=80=9Ca great
>> game=E2=80=9D rather than one in which =E2=80=9Cthe great game=E2=80=9D=
 (or =E2=80=9Cthe Great Game=E2=80=9D)
>> clearly involves the presupposition that it refers to the skirmishes =
about
>> the major powers over control of Southwest Asia=E2=80=A6
>>=20
>> LH
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> The American Dialect Society -
>> http://www.americandialect.org/
>> <http://www.americandialect.org/>
>>=20
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org/
>>=20
>=20
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org/

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