Everyday lifeMyths & disputes

golf

The Scots game of golf is first named in a 1457 statute banning it; the word is usually traced to Middle Dutch colf 'club', from a Germanic word that also gave German Kolben. Scots and English golfers then exported game and name to France, America, Japan and the world.

Weakest linkProbable

The story you may have heard

An acronym of 'Gentlemen Only, Ladies Forbidden'. The word is centuries older than acronyms of this kind, and the story seems to date only from the 1990s.

The road to English

From Proto-Germanic to Old High German, German

From Proto-Germanic to Old Norse

From Middle Dutch to Dutch

From English to French

From English to American English

From English to German

From English to Spanish

From English to Russian

From English to Japanese

From Japanese to Korean

200 BCEProto-Germanic

Hops are evenly spaced; labels show the year each form is first attested.

The road to English

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