Language is always evolving. We have a lot of words in the dictionary today that meant nothing in most parts of the world a few decades ago, including twerking, TL;DR, selfie, worstest and microaggression. (Source: Oxford English Dictionary) (Source: Merriam-Webster)

What about the language of bridge? Surely, at some point, there’s a little bit of room for terms to evolve and change from what we have today.

Here’s what the language of bridge might evolve into in the future – in jest, of course.

The Original Term: Trumps

Have the shenanigans and mysterious tweets of the current US President tarnished the term trumps? Bridge players owned the term before it referred to a president, but if it has to change in a few years or decades, I guess we might just have to pick the name of another president with a better reputation to replace it.

We could now start to name bridge contracts in Lincolns or Kennedy’s.

The Original Term: Alert

In bridge, it’s common for an alert to be called. But it’s also just as common for regular people to have post-traumatic stress disorder in today’s day and age – and if we have any more wars or threats thereof, we might have to change the announcing of an alert to something that reminds people less of evacuation sirens. Instead of alerting, let’s just raise our hands for this, albeit slowly.

The Original Term: Psychic Bid

How about the term psychic bid? If your partner is an actual psychic or you’re playing with a tarot deck, you can psychic bid away – but the term might fall away since the number of telephone psychics and palm readers isn’t what it used to be. Any votes for the term mentalist bid instead?

The Original Term: Rubber

Rubber is another one of those terms that I feel like we owned first, but that happens to mean something else in most other places. Generally, the most I get when inviting non-players for a rubber is a weird look – at least, until I explain what it means in context.

Instead of rubber bridge, we could play toothpick or deodorant bridge on occasion: They can also be bought in packs of three at most gas stations.

The Original Term: Vulnerable

In bridge, teams can be vulnerable – but it also refers to a state of mind. Instead of vulnerable, one team at the table could be feeling fragile, be in peril or start the game as exposed or endangered.

The Original Term: Bots

For now, the term “bridge bot” or “bot” might suffice, but the moment GIB becomes intelligent enough to care about things other than a bridge game, we might have to revise the term. What do we call bridge bots when bots have taken over?

The Original Term: Pass

Eventually we might have to remove the term “pass” from the game: When hearing it, I’d assume that some players wait around for the puff.