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Jen A. Miller, For The Inquirer Posted: Sunday, December 30, 2012, 3:01 AM

There aren't just four-letter curse words.

In running, at least, there's a three-letter one, too - Jog.

It's a dated term, a leftover from the first U.S. running boom that coincided with bell-bottoms and disco, when fewer than 2,000 people ran the New York City Marathon and when women were told not to run because it would ruin their femininity and reproductive health.

Women were banned from running certain distances because it was believed they couldn't physically handle it.

Using the term jogging now is either like calling your pants slacks (pants that, if they look good, are "sharp," and probably bought at Strawbridge & Clothier), or it's an insult.

Pre-running-boom, running was called "road work," and done primarily by athletes from other sports who wanted to stay in shape.

When running became something to do for the sake of itself, New Zealand running coach Arthur Lydiard called it jogging, and the word ended up here via Bill Bowerman, legendary University of Oregon track coach and Nike founder who wrote the book Jogging in 1966 after a visit with Lydiard.

As running evolved and the New York City Marathon numbers topped 10,000, then 20,000, then 40,000, the terminology changed.

Jogger still is used in newspapers as a synonym for runners ("Jogger chased by mountain lion," Denver Post, Dec. 22; "Escaped emu follows jogger through streets of Virginia Beach," The Daily Press, Dec. 14). But within the running community, jog became an unfortunate dividing line.

Read this article:
"Jogging" - a fighting word?