In golf, being below par is a good thing, so why is being subpar a bad thing? To answer this, let's go back to the Latin adjective par, which meant "equal" or "even". This was borrowed into Old French in the 1200s and then was first used in English in 1601 as an economic term referring to the rate of exchange of a currency between two countries. Throughout the centuries, it took on the meaning of "average", which was used in both of the previous examples, just in different ways. It could also mean "equal" or "normal", as in the case of par for the course. Finally, Latin par has an uncertain derivation. Some theorize that it comes from Proto-Indo-European perh, meaning "exchange", but sound change rules don't work for that, so it's also possible it might not be Indo-European at all.
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Thibaut
8/9/2021 07:59:14 pm
Interesting to realize that the meaning of "par" is hazy in English. As the word is still used in French to mean "by", when you hear someone say "ce trou est un par 3" (this hole is a par 3), you instinctively understand that the hole is meant to get done "by 3 strikes".
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AUTHORHello! I'm Adam Aleksic. This year, I graduated from Harvard University with a degree in Government and Linguistics. There, I co-founded the Harvard Undergraduate Linguistics Society and wrote a thesis on Serbo-Croatian language policy, magna cum laude. In addition to etymology, I also really enjoy trivia, politics, vexillology, geography, board games, conlanging, art history, and law.
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