one-upsmanship
Meaning
The art or practice of being or trying to be better than someone else, especially in a competitive or boastful way.
Structure
Usage
Their conversation quickly devolved into a tiresome display of one-upsmanship about their children's achievements.
He's not really interested in the hobby; it's all about one-upsmanship with his colleagues.
The corporate culture there encourages collaboration over cutthroat one-upsmanship.
Etymology
The term is a 20th-century coinage that humorously formalizes a common social behavior. It is built upon the colloquial verb "to one-up," which originates from early 20th-century gaming slang, specifically from cribbage, where being "one-up" signifies a lead of one point. The suffix "-manship," abstracted from words like "craftsmanship" or "gamesmanship," is appended to create a noun denoting the skill or practice of competitively outdoing others. Thus, the word's literal construction—"the skill (-manship) of being one-up"—perfectly captures its modern meaning of engaging in petty rivalry to maintain a perceived superior position.
Analysis
- one-up: (Origin: English) A compound verb/adjective meaning "to gain an advantage over someone." It is derived from the game of cribbage, where scoring "one-up" on an opponent means being one point ahead. - s: (Origin: English) A linking or inflectional element, often used to form the genitive case or to connect elements in a compound. - manship: (Origin: English) A suffix derived from Old English -scipe (meaning "state, condition, quality"), cognate with Modern English -ship. It denotes a skill, art, or quality of being.