where did the term birdie come fron in golf?
544983
The term 'birdie' originated in the United States in 1899.  H.B. Martin's "Fifty Years of American Golf" contains an account of a foursomes match played at the Atlantic City (N.J.) CC.  One of the players, Ab Smith relates: "my ball... came to rest within six inches of the cup.  I said 'That was a bird of a shot... I suggest that when one of us plays a hole in one under par he receives double compensation.'  The other two agreed and we began right away, just as soon as the next one came, to call it a 'birdie.'  In 19th century American slang, 'bird' refereed to anyone or anything excellent or wonderful.\n\nBy analogy with 'birdie,' the term 'eagle' soon thereafter became common to refer to a score one better than a 'bird.'  Also by analogy, the term 'albatross' for double eagle - an even bigger eagle!
171743
Scotland...\n\nNobody knows exactly how golf started but most scholars say that the\ngame of golf was from club in German or Dutch, “Kolbe” or “Kolf” and\ngolf started from a man hitting stones with stick instinctively in\nancient days.\n  \nW.G.Simpson explained the origin that golf began by a shepherd on a\nsheep pasture in Fifeshire, which became the Royal and Ancient Golf\nClub of St. Andrews. One day a man was playing with a small stone\nhitting by a stick as usual but then the stone fell into a rabbit hole\nby chance. When he was trying to put a stone in a hole again, his\nfriends saw it and joined together.\n   \nIt also can be said that golf started among the ancient Romans. This\ngame was played with a bent stick and a leather ball filled with\nfeathers. The Roman army conquered Europe bringing the sport them and\ngolf was spread over the European countries.\n  \nThere is another suggestion that “Koven”, a Dutch game, is the origin\nof golf. The game consisted of people trying to hit a stick with a\nminimum of strokes using a ball which was the same size as a\ngrapefruit. 200 years later, golf was established in Scotland.\n  \nMoreover, another opinion is that golf came from the Flemish game of\n“Chole” played in 1353. This game was played by two players hitting\nthe same ball three times each using a stick to reach the far goal.\n  \nThese games are similar to recent golf but not exactly the same. It is\nsure that golf naturally results from such sports as these. Records\nsay that a kind of golf was played in Scotland in the 15th century,\nand it was developed by Scots.
388540
Golf originated in Scotland and has been played for at least five centuries in the British Isles. The oldest course in the world is The Old Links at Musselburgh. Golf, in essentially the form we know it today, has been played on Scotland's Musselburgh Links since 1672, and earlier versions of the game have been played in the British Isles and the low-countries of Northern Europe for several centuries before that. Although often viewed as an elite pastime, golf is an increasingly popular sport that can be played for one's entire life.
199742
Badminton's roots date back centuries, having originated from a children's game known in England as "battledore and shuttlecock".\n\nIn 1873 the sport gained its current title after guests at a Badminton House lawn party held by the Duke of Beaufort introduced it to their friends as "the Badminton game".
750934
The USGA references the term as long ago as the 1700's and the British Golf Museum has referenced it as far back as 1881, no direct definition but there are basically two explanations that make the most sense.\n\n1.) Think of the word “fore” like a ship’s fore and aft (forward and back), so instead of yelling “watch out ahead, or “ball heading forward”, for short you can just yell “fore”. \n\n2.) Or think of “fore” like “before”, as you might say “watch out before you get hit by my golf ball that I hit so badly that it might hit you even if you are 2 fairways over.”\n\nThe word fore is also short for yelling to your forecaddie to let them know the ball is headed their way.
565142
Fore! is a warning shout in golf when a wildly struck ball threatens person(s) ahead - misunderstood by many to be 'four', the word is certainly 'fore', which logically stems from the Middle English meaning of fore as 'ahead' or 'front', as in forearm, forerunner, foreman, foremost, etc., or more particularly 'too far forward' in the case of an overhit ball. Sources suggest the golf term was in use by the late 1870's. The use of the 'fore' prefix in the context of a warning or pre-emptive action was established long ago in similar senses: forewarn, foretell, foreshadow, forestall, and foresee, etc., (foresee actually dates back to the 1200's).\nAnother explanation is that the term refers to "forecaddie". In the past, balls were very expensive, I'm not saying that they are exactly on the cheap side these days mind you however, players used to have a person near the place where the ball was expected to land to see its exact location.\nThis is from a book entitled, A History of Golf, by Robert Browning, (1955, J.M. Dent & Sons). Browning, a Scot, who was the editor of a magazine called, "Golfing" from 1910 to 1955 and was a scholar devoted to tracing the authenticity of the many claims about the games history and lore. His account is as follows:\n\nDr. Neilson, a keen student of Scottish history and literature, discovered a passage in the works of John Knox which reads (edited to remove odd 16th century spellings): 'One among many comes to the East Port (i.e., gate) of Leith, where lay 2 great pieces of ordnance, and where their enemies were known to be, and cried to his fellows that were defending at the gate making: "Ware Before!" and so fires the 1st great piece, and thereafter the other.' The cry of 'Beware before', that is "Look out in front" was, of course, the signal for the defenders of the gate to drop to the ground in order that the guns might be fired over them. \n\nThe situation is similar to that of the golfer intending to drive over the head of someone on the fairway in front, and the way in which the military signal 'Ware before!' might in the course of time be cut down to "Fore!" needs no explaining.
78437
I don't have an answer, but I know a few interesting things about golf that you may find interest in.\n\n1) How golf got its name: GOLF stands for Gentlemen Only, Ladies Forbidden. Of course that male-only priviledge has recently changed to include women.\n\n2) In Japan, if you score a hole-in-one, you have to have hole-in-one insurance. The Japanese consider that if you have been fortunate enough to score a h.i.o., then you need to spread that fortune with others. If you don't have the insurance you could have to pay a lot of money, like a million dollars.
493093
Golf (gowf in Scots) is a game where individual players or teams hit a ball into a hole using various clubs, and is one of the few ball games that does not use a fixed standard playing area. It is defined in the Rules of Golf as "playing a ball with a club from the teeing ground into the hole by a stroke or successive strokes in accordance with the Rules."\n\nGolf originated in Scotland and has been played for at least five centuries in the British Isles. The oldest course in the world is The Old Links at Musselburgh. Golf, in essentially the form we know it today, has been played on Scotland's Musselburgh Links since 1672, and earlier versions of the game have been played in the British Isles and the low-countries of Northern Europe for several centuries before that. Although often viewed as an elite pastime, golf is an increasingly popular sport that can be played for one's entire life.\n\nAmerican football, known in the United States and Canada [1] simply as football, is a competitive team sport. The object of the game is to advance the football towards the opposing team's end zone and score points. The ball can be advanced by carrying the ball, or by throwing or handing it from one teammate to the other. Points can be scored in a variety of ways, including carrying the ball over the goal line, throwing the ball to another player past the goal line or kicking it through the goal posts on the opposing side. The winner is the team with the most points when the time expires and the last play ends.\n\nOutside of the United States and Canada, the sport is usually referred to as American football (or sometimes as gridiron or gridiron football) to differentiate it from other football games, especially association football (soccer) and rugby football. American football evolved as a separate sport from rugby football in the late 19th century. Arena football is a variant of American football. Canadian football is a close relative to the sport with a few key differences; the word "football" in Canada can mean American football or Canadian football depending on context.\n\nAssociation football, soccer, or simply football is a team sport played between two teams consisting of eleven players each. It is a ball game played on a rectangular grass field with a goal at each end. The object of the game is to score by maneuvering the ball into the opposing goal. Other than the goalkeepers, players may not use their hands or arms to propel the ball in general play. The winner of the match is the team that has scored most goals at the end of the match. The sport is known by many names throughout the English-speaking world, although football is the most common. Other names, such as association football and soccer, are often used to distinguish the game from other codes of football, since the word football may be used to refer to several quite different games.\n\nThe origins of football are thought to be over 2000 years old. Indeed, in 2004, football's governing body Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) officially acknowledged that China was the birthplace of football, when people played the sport of cuju around 200 BC. Association football in paticular dervived out of games played at public schools in England in the Nineteenth Century.
1018736
Mulligan in golf\nIn golf, a mulligan is a shot retaken, due to an errant shot. Mulligans are strictly prohibited in the official rules of the game, but are a commonplace in social golf. According to some, it is named after Winged Foot's David Mulligan, who brought the concept from Canada to the U.S.\n\nOrigin\nThere are many theories about the origin of the term. The United States Golf Association (USGA) cites three different stories explaining that the term derived from the name of a Canadian golfer, David Mulligan, one time manager of the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City, who played at St. Lambert in Montreal during the 1920s. One version has it that one day after hitting a poor tee shot, Mr. Mulligan re-teed and shot again. He called it a "correction shot," but his friends thought it more fitting to name the practice after him. A second version has the extra shot given to Mulligan due to his being jumpy and shaky after a difficult drive to the course. The final version of the David Mulligan story gives him an extra shot after having overslept, rushing to get ready to make the tee time.\n\nAn alternate, later etymology credits a different man named Mulligan — John A. "Buddy" Mulligan, a locker room attendant at Essex Fells, New Jersey. In the 1930s, he was known to replay shots.\n\nAccording to the USGA, the term first achieved widespread use in the 1940's.
66228
Comes from Scottish.  They invented the game, called it "Goff".  Golf is the Americanized version of that word.  Not an acronym for anything, that's absurd.
361240
I've heard "spank the monkey" to refer to other things.....never "spank the pig" for golf. \n\nWe say "slap the seed" or "tap the pill" around here.
598407
In common with others, the Historical Dictionary of Golfing Terms (1993) believes that "Birdie" comes from the 19th century American slang term "bird", meaning anything excellent.\n"Eagle" is the extension of the theme of birds for good scores from a "Birdie". A score of two under Par is, in some ways, a 'big birdie' and an Eagle is a big bird.\nThree under Par is a very rare score and an Albatross is a very rare bird, and now three under Par is generally referred to an "Albatross".
176572
according to pga rules a cirlce goes around a birdie however two circles go around an eagle or better
217579
Ling Hongling of Lanzhou University suggests that golf may have originated in China at least 500 years before it was first mentioned in Scotland. Archives called the Dongzuan Records from the Song Dynasty describe a game called chuiwan and also include drawings. It was played with 10 clubs including a cuanbang, pubang, and shaobang, which are comparable to a driver, two-wood, and three-wood. The archive also includes references to a Nan Tang Dynasty magistrate who asked his daughter to make "holes" for him to play, and describes his "tee" as being jewel-encrusted. There were further descriptions of clubs being inlaid with jade and gold, suggesting golf was for the wealthy. Hongling suggested golf may have been exported to Europe and then Scotland by Mongolian travellers in the late Middle Ages. [4] [5] [6] [7]\n\nGolf was usually regarded as a Scottish invention, as the game was mentioned in two 15th-century laws prohibiting the playing of the game of "gowf". Some scholars, however, suggest that this refers to another game which is much akin to shinty or hurling, or to modern field hockey. They point out that a game of putting a small ball in a hole in the ground using golf clubs was played in 17th-century Netherlands. Primatively, the action of using a stick with a boxed attachment to hit stones close to a marked target, similar to that of bocce, originated in Italy. The term golf is believed to have originated from a Germanic word for "club". It has been hypothesised that golf is actually an acronym for gentlemen only; ladies forbidden, but this is believed to be an urban legend.\n\nIt is an urban legend that golf courses contain 18 holes because that was the number of shots it took to polish off a fifth of scotch. According to the USGA however, this is incorrect. The links at St. Andrews occupy a narrow strip of land along the sea. As early as the 15th century, golfers at St. Andrews established a customary route through the undulating terrain, playing to holes whose locations were dictated by topography. The course that emerged featured eleven holes, laid out end to end from the clubhouse to the far end of the property. One played the holes out, turned around, and played the holes in, for a total of 22 holes. In 1764, several of the holes were deemed too short, and were therefore combined. The number was thereby reduced from 11 to nine, so that a complete round of the links comprised 18 holes.\n\nThe oldest playing golf course in the world is The Old Links at Musselburgh. Evidence has shown that golf was played on Musselburgh Links in 1672 although Mary Queen of Scots reputedly played there in 1567. The major changes in equipment since the 19th century have been better mowers, especially for the greens, better golf ball designs, using rubber and man-made materials since about 1900, and the introduction of the metal shaft beginning in the 1930s. Also in the 1930s the wooden golf tee was invented. In the 1970s the use of metal to replace wood heads began, and shafts made of graphite composite materials were introduced in the 1980s.\n\nSocial aspects of golf\nIn the United States, golf is the unofficial game of the business world. It is often said, in fact, that board meetings merely confirm decisions that are actually made on the golf course. For this reason, the successful conduct of business golf (which extends beyond merely knowing the game) is considered a useful business skill; various schools, including prestigious universities such as Stanford University, have started both undergraduate and graduate-level courses that teach "business golf." The PGA of America, an organization separate from the PGA Tour, helps to sponsor these programs at universities nationwide.\n\nGolf is not inherently an expensive activity; the cost of an average round of golf is USD $36 [8], and the game is regularly enjoyed by over 26 million Americans and many more world-wide. In fact, most regio
389315
The rules of the new game of lawn tennis were drawn up by the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) in 1875. Scoring derived from real, or royal, tennis, which had its origins in medieval cathedral cloisters. The name comes from the French habit of calling out tenez! (take this!) before serving. In real tennis, each exchange was worth 15 points, the score of 40 being an abbreviation for 45. Deuce is a corruption of a deux (meaning two consecutive exchanges needed to win). Love is either a corruption of l'oeuf (an egg) or playing not seriously but for the love of the game
1002457
tennis  \n1345, most likely from Anglo-Fr. tenetz "hold! receive! take!," from O.Fr. tenez, imperative of tenir "to hold, receive, take," which was used as a call from the server to his opponent. The original version of the game (a favorite sport of medieval Fr. knights) was played by striking the ball with the palm of the hand, and in O.Fr. was called la paulme, lit. "the palm," but to an onlooker the service cry would naturally seem to identify the game. The use of the word for the modern game is from 1874, short for lawn tennis, which originally was called sphairistike (1873), from Gk. sphairistike (tekhne) "(skill) in playing at ball," from the root of sphere. It was invented, and named, by Maj. Walter C. Wingfield and first played at a garden party in Wales, inspired by the popularity of badminton. \n"The name 'sphairistike,' however, was impossible (if only because people would pronounce it as a word of three syllables to rhyme with 'pike') and it was soon rechristened." ["Times" of London, June 10, 1927]
308493
The word is "fore"\n\nIt began, back when golf courses were not the manicured gardens that you see today. They often had lots of long grass. So it was easy to lose your ball.\n\nThey had "fore caddies" meaning, front caddie. Usually a young land who would go way out in front and watch where the ball landed. If in the long grass he had a good chance of seeing exactly where it landed.\n\nWhen the golfer hit his shot, seeing that it is headed for the long grass, he would yell "fore" to alert the fore caddy.\n\nToday of course it is used to alert another golfer that a projectile is headed his way and in a hurry.