Aha! A thread of modest length at last!
Having just returned from a bit of an absence to find an
enormous backlog of unread postings, far too big to cope with, I will seize on our beloved Jackie's new(-ish) thread, perhaps also helping to get things back on track here(?)
The ever-entertaining Bill Bryson (
Made In America) gives quite a few words and phrases picked up from baseball by many other sports and activities, such as "double play", "raincheck", "southpaw" (an interesting derivation, too long for here, YCLIU), "fan" (in the sense of supporter), "double-header" (very common in many ball games now), "to play ball" (in the sense of cooperate).
He points out that baseball generated a vast vocabulary during its nineteenth century adolescence, and a complete listing would run to several pages. As a matter of interest, recent neologisms apparently include "dial 8" for a home run and "Linda Ronstadt" for a good fastball.
lusy
