What Does Gambit Mean?

Wondrous Words Wednesday

wondrous memeWelcome to Wondrous Words Wednesday, an awesome meme for boosting your vocabulary!  To find more interesting words, visit  Kathy at bermudaonion.net!

My entry today comes from Pastor Alistair Begg, who was speaking at Camp of the Woods when I vacationed there.  In his lesson on the Gospels, Mr. Begg said that Nicodemus used an “opening gambit” to draw Jesus into a conversation.

 

Surely I was the only nerd in the audience pulling up her dictionary app to look up gambit!

gambit \’gam- bət\ noun, from Italian gambetto, the act of tripping someone, meaning:

  1. a chess opening in which a player risks one or more minor pieces to gain an advantage in position 
  2. a remark intended to start a conversation
  3. a calculated move

Clearly, Mr. Begg was referring to definition #2, but #3 sounds much more fun.

The journalist used the interview with Mr. Prescott as a gambit to obtain access to his impressive collection of luxury sports cars.

Word Nerd Note

GambitIn 2012, Colin Firth starred in the movie Gambit as a disgruntled employee who tries to con his abusive boss.  (I’ve never heard of it, have you?)  Also, Gambit is the name of a Marvel Comic Book Superhero who can mentally control kinetic energy and excels at card throwing and hand to hand combat.

Word Nerd Workout

Think of a synonym for gambit.   My example: ploy.  Another great example, and one of my favorite words: shenanigan.  Now it’s your turn!  Leave your ideas in the comments, and thanks for getting nerdy with me today!

Julia 

 

 

Julia Tomiak
I believe in the power of words to improve our lives, and I help people find interesting words to read. Member of SCBWI.

10 Comments

  1. A synonym might be “ruse,” although it has a shadier connotation. A gambit or ploy might be sincere in its own right, even if it is calculated to get something else.

    But a ruse entails deception which is calculated to get something.

  2. Hi Julia,

    I know of each of your definitions for ‘gambit’, however I would probably most associate the word with, ‘the opening gambit’ in a chess game, or maybe some other gambling games.

    I was going to go with ‘maneuvre’ as an alternative word, but Kathy beat me to it. Would ‘strategy’ work do you think?

    Thanks for the fun post,

    Yvonne

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