Gamesmanship is the use of dubious methods to win or gain a serious advantage in a game or sport. It has been described as "Pushing the rules to the limit without getting caught, using whatever dubious methods possible to achieve the desired end". It may be inferred that the term derives from the idea of playing for the game as opposed to sportsmanship, which derives from the idea of playing for sport. The term was popularized by Stephen Potter's humorous 1947 book,
The Theory and Practice of Gamesmanship . It had, however, been used before by Ian Coster in his autobiographic book
Friends in Aspic, published in 1939, where it was attributed to Francis Meynell.