Q. Last year, we had a foreign exchange student from Germany stay with our family. When he wanted to challenge our boys to a video game, he would say he wanted to "verse" them. I have never heard of that form of "versus" being used that way. Now my oldest son wants to "verse" me in a video game. I would think that the word "challenge" would be the correct word. Can you help? — James Petrecca, via email

A. With the video game? Sorry, I'm terrible at those things! I'm all thumbs. (Hey, wouldn't that make me good at video games? Oh, well.)

As a verb, "verse" has long meant "to instruct" (my aunt versed me in dating strategies) and "to write in verse" (Homer versed the story of Odysseus). But the German student didn't want to instruct your sons or write a poem about them; he wanted to compete against them.

This new meaning of the verb "verse" has evolved during the past couple of decades. Instead of saying, "I want to play versus you," would-be opponents now say, "I want to verse you."

Dictionaries are just catching up with this new term. For instance, the fifth edition of the American Heritage Dictionary, published in 2011, includes for the first time this definition of "verse": "to play against (an opponent) in a competition."

Reflecting the recent emergence of this term in common speech, the AHD labels it "slang" and surmises that it's a backformation of "versus" that resulted when people mistook "versus" for "verses" in phrases such as "Boston versus New York."

The fact that someone from Germany uses the term suggests that it may have first surfaced among English speakers abroad, which could explain the mishearing of "versus" as "verses."

My own guess is that this definition arose from the blab of the pavement — on outdoor American basketball courts, where players say, "How about we three verse you three?"

It's worth noting that this comment, if misunderstood to mean "How about we three instruct you or write a poem about you?" could lead to a fistfight. So be careful out there.

Meanwhile, we ethereal word lovers sit in awe as a new definition rises slowly into view above the horizon. We share the wonder that John Keats versed when he first read a new translation of Homer: "I felt as some watcher of the skies when a new planet swims into his ken ... silent, upon a peak in Darien." (Or any other town or city in Connecticut.)

Rob Kyff, a teacher and writer in West Hartford, Conn., invites your language sightings. Send your reports of misuse and abuse, as well as examples of good writing, via e-mail to [email protected] or by regular mail to Rob Kyff, Creators Syndicate, 737 3rd Street, Hermosa Beach, CA 90254.