Joseph from Wilson, Wyoming, wonders: Why is subpar, or in other words under par, a good thing in golf but nowhere else? This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Subpar vs. Under Par”
Hello, you have A Way with Words.
Hello, this is Joseph from Wilson, Wyoming.
Hi, Joseph. Welcome to the show. How can we help you?
I have a question about subpar or underpar.
When it’s used as a golf term, underpar is a desirable thing. It’s a state that you want to find yourself in. But in almost every other endeavor that I can think of, being underpar is not something you want to find yourself being.
Right.
Right.
Right. All right. So we can explain this. There are two different scales here, two different measuring scales. And so what you need to remember is that each sport has its own way of considering something a really great score or a really good score.
For example, if you got a 69 in golf, that’s usually pretty good. If you got a 69 in basketball, people are like, not a very good game. You get a 69 in baseball, people are like, they’re carrying you down fifth to have a new New York City, right? The ticker tape is falling.
That would be historic, I guess.
That would be historic.
So we’re talking about different measuring scales for each part of life, not just sports. And golf has this really interesting thing where they start with an agreed-upon number. So let’s say 69, and you go a little bit above or a little bit below. But that number is considered standard or par, the number that a professional probably could reach on this course, given sufficient time and expertise and some experience on that course at all.
So golf is a scale that’s low to high, with low being better, and so many other things, most of the rest of things in life, are the scale is high to low, with high being better. And so it’s just that quirk.
So we’re still talking about par being standard or average or this place that we’re going to compare ourselves against. It’s just that golf, you need a low score, and everything else, almost, you need a high score.
That’s interesting.
The subpar that we use in everyday life actually doesn’t come from golf. It’s just golf borrowed its par from regular English, and the regular par is the standard usage of par, where par is a number that you’re going to try to beat and go above. You’re going to try to surpass.
Joseph, thank you for your call. We really appreciate it.
Thank you.
Bye-bye.
All righty.
Bye-bye.
Language has its quirks, but sports always does this extra thing, doesn’t it? Sports seems to go one more beyond ordinary in making the language its own for each individual sport.
Right, and adding to our language.
And then cycling it back, yeah.
The feedback loop continues. It goes back into the mainstream language.
We should say that par comes from the Latin for equal. And so if you’re on a par with somebody, you’re equal with them.
