As I was taking my daily walk of an hour today in Old Mill Park in West Liberty, KY, I saw a large gathering of either a family or church group in the largest shelter in the park. A group of several of the people were playing the game of Cornhole under the shelter roof on the concrete floor with what I sincerely hope was a fully regulation set of game apparatus. They seemed to be having a great time. I have to admit that I never see a game of Cornhole being played without instantly marveling once again at just how rapidly and strangely language changes in the world in general and the USA in particular. Upon researching the term Cornhole, I learned that the American Cornhole Association and/or the American Cornhole Organization regulate the game. One is located in Milford, OH, and I could not find a physical address for the other although I must admit that I have no need for it anyway. I was also amazed that there are actually strict regulations about what constitutes an official game set up and equipment. There are also strict standards for what is or is not a sanctioned tournament. God help you if you and your friends and family ever participate in an unsanctioned game or tournament with equipment that does not meet the official standards. Naturally, I wondered who in their right mind would care how near or far they are required to toss a cloth bag full or corn at a hole in a wooden elevated ramp, or how much corn goes in one of those bags, or how large the hole in the wooden ramp might be, or just how large that wooden ramp might be in all its dimensions, or how many bored individuals participate in the game, or whether or not the participants are all within a particular age range or gender, or any other mundane aspect of the game that might suddenly fall outside the official regulations. I even found more than one lengthy discussion of various competing theories for when the game of cornhole was invented and whether it is a modern American invention or an historical Native American challenge of their athletic abilities.
 |
| Photo of Cornhole Game by Amazon.com |
But the reason I always marvel at the recent change in linguistics lies in my memories of how, when, and where I first heard the term "cornhole" and was told as I was given the definition that I must not ever allow a responsible adult to hear me say the word "cornhole". My Google search of the term also revealed numerous hits of a linguistic nature on the term which I knew in advance it would do. When I was young and for untold decades before, the official definition of the term "cornhole", as explained by the scholarly Online Slang Dictionary, was "to be the penetrator during anal intercourse". How on God's green earth did a term with a decades old definition like that which would have to be abhorred, hated, vilified, and feared by God-fearing church members suddenly become a harmless, but somewhat meaningless, game to be played by those same God-fearing church members and their little, innocent descendants? I am sorry to say that I could not locate a royalty free and socially acceptable photo of the other, more historical definition to include on this post.
I also always remember, when I see a game of cornhole, an incident at a Northern KY storage auction which I was participating in as a buyer. The lock was cut off a unit and the most visible item in the unit was a cornhole game. I have no idea if it met regulation standards. But, as soon as the door slid up, the auctioneer who was actually conducting the sale and I just could not resist starting a minute or two of word play and patter about the linguistic change in the term which the crowd actually loved except for one or two potential customers who appeared likely to be among those God-fearing church members who wished to buy the unit, take the game home, donate it to the their church, and schedule a regulation tournament for even the youngest of their soon to be God-fearing descendants.
No comments:
Post a Comment