Etymology

golf

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Today it means: A ball game played by individuals competing against one another in which the object is to hit a ball into each of a series of (usually 18 or nine) holes in the minimum number of strokes. Full definition →

Middle Scots golf ← Middle Dutch colve ← Proto-Germanic *kulbaz
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The story

  1. Proto-Germanic · derived from*kulbaz“club”
  2. Middle Dutch · derived fromcolve
  3. Middle Scots · borrowed fromgolf
  4. English todaygolf

The word is first known in English from the 17th century as a borrowing from Middle Scots golf, gouff. Although the etymology is uncertain, the most likely origin is that it comes from the Middle Dutch colve, colf (“club”), ultimately from Proto-Germanic *kulbaz (“club”), related to German Kolben (“piston, rod”), Swedish kolv (“piston, rod”), Old English clopp (“rock; cliff”), English kelp.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.