“Game plan” is a strategy for achieving a goal, originating from American football. It has become a widely used idiom in everyday speech and is used in competitive and non-competitive contexts. The phrase gained broader idiomatic meanings and is often used without explicitly stating the ultimate goal.
A “game plan” is a strategy for achieving a goal. This common English idiom derives from American football, in which a coach might prepare a particular strategy for a game, based on the respective strengths and weaknesses of the coach’s team and the opposing team. While this term originated in the field of sports, it has become widely used in everyday speech.
The English language is full of sports idioms, which are phrases that initially applied to sports but have grown over time to have broader idiomatic meanings. While it is difficult to determine exactly when this phrase was coined, it is likely that it can be traced back to American football in the early 1940s. As with many idiomatic expressions, it was initially applied in a more literal sense. When soccer players met with their coaches before a game, they would plan out their course of action to help them win. Logically, they called this plan of action a “game plan.”
Shortly after its emergence in sports, the phrase gained widespread idiomatic use. Instead of just being used in reference to winning a game, it could be used in reference to a wide variety of goals. The phrase became an idiom because the word “game” within the phrase no longer strictly meant a match between rival sports teams but could mean any type of activity necessary to achieve a goal.
The expression’s origin in sports leads it to be particularly common in competitive endeavors. This phrase is often used in business meetings and politics. To open a meeting about a new product launch, a businessman might ask, “What’s the game plan?” His colleagues would then respond with their strategy for a successful product launch.
The term is also used in non-competitive contexts, such as in informal everyday speech. For example, a child helping his parents cook dinner might ask, “What’s the game plan?” The parent would then let the child know what to do to make a successful dinner party.
In these examples, the overall goal itself is not explicitly stated. When using the “game plan”, it is very common to express the strategy without directly stating the ultimate goal of the strategy, because the goal can usually be understood automatically. For example, a political campaign manager might say, “Our game plan is to court the union vote.” Most listeners would already know that a campaign manager’s primary goal would be for his candidate to win the election, so it would go without saying, “Our game plan for winning the election is to court the union vote.” .
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