Welcome to the History of English Podcast, a podcast about the history of the English language.

This is Episode 122, the name of the game.

In this episode, we're going to explore the events leading to the first major poem composed

by Jeffrey Chaucer.

This story will take us through the 1360s, a decade in which the power of the peasants

was growing stronger, and the Hundred Years War continued to simmer.

It was also an era in which archery was considered to be the only pastime in the National Interest,

so most other games and sports were outlawed.

Despite those restrictions, most people continued to entertain themselves with games that were

popular at the time, and many of those games evolved into the games and sports we played

today.

Along the way, these activities contributed lots of words and phrases to the English language.

So this time, we'll explore those developments, and we'll see how they impacted the English

language.

But before we begin, let me remind you that the website for the podcast is historyofenglishpodcast.com,

and you can sign up to support the podcast and get bonus episodes and transcripts at patreon.com

slash history of English.

Now this time, I want to pick up the story where we left off last time, with the official

recognition of English as the language of the English parliament and the courts.

As you may recall, the English parliament adopted a law in the year 1362, which gave English

an official status for the first time since the Norman Conquest.

The law was called the Statute of Pleating, and it reflected the rise of the peasants

...