The Language of Skiers

given The New Encyclopedia of Sports2 published I947. The terminology of skiers reflects the history of the sport. The first terms to be found dictionaries are, like the word ski itself, of Scandinavian origin: christiania (long since Anglicized to christie, -y), ski joring, skiaring, slalom, and telemark. Due to the achievements of German-speaking (particularly Austrian) skiers and theoreticians, the German element the language of skiers soon outweighed that of any other foreign language. No doubt the growing number of German-speaking skiing instructors this country furthered this influx of German words. The German influence is most marked the sport's technical terminology generally used not only by American theoreticians and instructors but also by ski fans who want to show how much they are in the know on the art of skiing. Such German words frequently appear books on skiing technique and instruction, where they are usually explained; they also pop up again and again the magazines for ski enthusiasts who do not, or are not supposed to, need such an explanation. German words of this type are: abstemmen, gela(e)ndelauf, gela(e)ndela(e)ufer, gela(e)ndesprung [gela(e)nde jump], kanone, klister, langlauf, langla(e)ufer, passgang, ru(e)cklage, schuss,4 steilhang, and vorlage. Additions not yet recorded the dictionaries are: hochwende, mogul (?), ski hell, umsprung, vorlauf, and wedel. Some of the English terms are literal equivalents of terms used by German-speaking skiers and might be called loan translations

Linguistics · Computer Science · Winter Sports Injuries and Performance · Philosophy

• American Lexicology, 1942-1973

  James B Mcmillan•American Speech•1978

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