It's the Word of the Day podcast for March 12th.

Today's word is Gambit, spelled GAMB-I-T.

Gambit is a noun.

A gambit is something done or said in order to gain an advantage or to produce

a desired effect. Here's the word used in a sentence from the New York Times. Now the book

publishing industry has sent a message to all AI companies, our intellectual property, isn't

yours for the taking, and you cannot act with impunity. This settlement

is an opening gambit in a critical battle that will be waged for years to come. Don't let the

similarities of sound and general flavor between the words Gambit and Gamble trip you up. The two

are unrelated. Gambit first appeared in English in a 1656

chess handbook that was said to feature almost a hundred illustrated gambets. Gambet, G-A-M-B-E-T-T,

traces back first to the Spanish word Gambito, and before that to the Italian Gambetto,

from Gamba meaning leg. Gambetto referred to the act of tripping someone, as in wrestling,

in order to gain an advantage. In chess, Gambit originally referred to a chess opening

whereby the bishop's pawn is intentionally sacrificed or tripped to gain an advantage in position.

Gambit is now also applied to many other chess openings, but after being pinned down for years, it finally broke free of chess's hold and is used generally to refer to any move,

whether literal or rhetorical, done to get a leg up, so to speak.

While such moves can be risky, Gambit is not synonymous with the word gamble,

which likely comes from the old English gayman, meaning amusement, jest, or pastime, the source of our word game.

With your word of the day, I'm Peter Sokolowski.

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