Where did the fad of putting the word ‘Team’ before the name come from? You know, Team USA, Team Alpha, Team StupidNameWeMadeUp. What happened to the USA Team, the StupidNameWeMadeUp Team?
It sets my teeth on edge everytime I hear it, as it sounds like an affected attempt at make something sound racey and modern. Can anything be done to make people stop it? Like beating them senseless everytime they do it?
“Team” as you’re using it is not an adjective, it’s a noun. As to the origins of this inverted word order, my WAG is it comes from the military.
Main Entry: [sup]3[/sub]team
Function: adjective
Date: 1886
Main Entry: [sup]3[/sup]team
Function: adjective
Date: 1886
FG, some examples of ‘team’ as an adjective: team player, team effort, teaming millions (:D).
Just in case it wasn’t clear, I’ll mention that it’s “teeming millions”, where teeming is a participle formed from the verb teem.
That’s an attributive use of a noun.
I think rowrr is on track here. The adjectival usage doesn’t quite seem to apply in the case FG mentions. Anyone in the military know when it went from being “Bravo Company” to “Team Strikeforce”? (i.e., UNIT-NAME now vs. NAME-UNIT before)
WAG time, in international sports French is heavily used. IFAIK it is the official language of the Intl. Olympics Comm. So you hear a lot about “Team Canada” type names in sports. And it kinda rubs onto you after a while…
Hmmm, sounds like a good wag to me. The grammar is certainly in line with French.
It’s used everywhere though, and really irritates me for some reason.
Doesn’t irritate me so much as its Dilbertesque use as a verb, as in “To be successfull we’ll have to team on this project.”