“That’s the oldest quotation that we have of this word.” “ The sentence is simply, ‘Penny is the GOAT (Greatest of All Time),'” said Sokolowski. This company was used as an umbrella for all of the former boxer’s intellectual properties being used for commercial purposes.Īccording to Sokolowski, the first version Merriam-Webster found of its online use was in 1996 on an Orlando Magic forum referencing Penny Hardaway. 1992, Lonnie Ali, Muhammad Ali’s wife, incorporated G.O.A.T. GOAT, as a word used in reference to “Greatest of All Time,” had its origin in an expected place: Muhammad Ali. There are plenty of those also.” Where did GOAT come from? Let’s see if its usage continues to grow, because we also don’t want to enter words that kind of come and go. It’s not really yes or no, it’s more like let’s wait another year. So we watch those words, and basically the most senior editors will make a call. “There’s no committee, there’s no advocacy, there are no meetings. “If a word has met those three criteria, it goes in,” Sokolowski continued. That means of the people using this term, do they use it the same way or to mean the same thing?” One, is it used by many people in many places? Two, is it being used consistently and increasingly? In other words, long term use. That’s the thing: We want to see the word fit three criteria. “It’ll go in the database, and we’ll basically keep noticing it. “We will watch a term like this for a while,” Sokolowski explained.

What does the goat mean