GET YOUR HEAD IN THE GAME!

The ball is in your court: Do you know these 10 sport-related idioms?

Image: Riley McCullough

It is said that baseball is America’s favorite pastime, but we would like to argue that several other sports are heavy contenders for the title. Or perhaps it would be more suitable to consider that the thrill of sports themselves fuel millions of Americans every day. From the excitement of a "Hail Mary" pass being completed, to an indomitable boxer getting up for one more round, sports are undeniably an essential part of American culture.

We might sometimes fail to realize how many of our everyday expressions come from the world of sports. With that in mind, we have gathered ten of our favorite sports idioms for your enjoyment. Some you know, and some might be a bit of a surprise. Who knows? You might end up with a new catchphrase for the next game you watch with your friends.

Image: Samuel-Elias Nadler

We’ll begin this list with one of the most popular sports idioms out there. Whenever you hear someone say "The ball is in your court now", you might suddenly feel burdened with the responsibility of taking action. And while this is its most common use, this idiom might also mean an opportunity to make amazing things happen.

The origins of this idiom most likely come from the world of tennis, since a player might only take action whenever the ball is on their side of the court. While this phrase was most popular during the 1970s, it can be traced back to the 19th century.

Image: Riley McCullough

A "Hail Mary" is a last-minute, long-distance pass, usually made in a last-ditch attempt to score. While other popular sports like basketball had some incredible "Hail Mary" moments, this move is mostly associated with football. The perhaps most iconic Hail Mary pass happened in a 1984 game between the Miami Hurricanes and the Boston College Eagles when Boston quarterback Doug Flutie made a 63-yard successful pass that resulted in a touchdown. This iconic game is now known as "the Hail Flutie", and a statue of Flutie commemorating the pass was unveiled in Boston College in 2008.

The origins of this idiom come from Christianity, most accurately from the "Hail Mary" prayer. Considering the difficult odds of completing this pass, the play references a prayer for help and success.

Image: Keith Johnston

This one is a bit of a mystery. The idiom "Out of left field", which means something that is very surprising or completely unexpected, comes from baseball. What’s not completely clear is why baseballs thrown from the left field are considered odd or unexpected, since most batters are right-handed and would tend to hit the ball onto the left field. Some people believe that, because left fielders tend to be the most far out, a fast throw from the left field would be an unexpected surprise.

According to music historian Arnold Shaw, this idiom was first used by the music industry to refer to songs that unexpectedly performed well. In the 1940s, "Out of left field" hits were heavily promoted by song pluggers as songs that were easily sold.

Image: Nemesia Production

Allow us to describe this idiom with a timeless cinematic scene. In the first "Rocky" movie, after the up-and-coming new boxer knocks Apollo Creed for the first time, the enraged heavyweight champion launches a flurry of punches at Rocky. The Italian Stallion can only protect himself, and finds himself restricted to the corner of the ring. This image is a perfect example of being on the ropes: to be in an extremely desperate situation, from which it's very difficult to recover.

Image: Johann Walter Bantz

Another staple of boxing films is the iconic countdown when the underdog hits the canvas after what seems to be a defeating punch. What follows is an excruciating count, on which our hero pulls out his last hurrah and stands right before a referee in slow motion as it reaches ten.

While its origins obviously come from boxing, this idiom is extremely popular and regularly used in American slang. Its connotation is usually of being completely defeated, and unable to recover from a spectacular beatdown.

Image: Jose Francisco Morales

A tricky question on an exam or an awkward dinner with the in-laws are some of the curveballs that life usually throws at us. This idiom is used to describe an unexpected and tough situation or problem, and it of course comes from baseball.

There is actually some debate on who threw the first curveball, but what we do know is that it was in the 19th century. Fred Goldsmith, one of the players who claims to have thrown the first curveball, would set poles on a baseball field and amaze fans by throwing a curve between them.

Image: Ryan Reinoso

We have all dropped the ball at some point in our lives. Maybe we said the wrong thing on a first date or forgot to pick up the dry cleaning before they closed for the weekend. To "drop the ball" is an expression used for making a mistake, or for forgetting something important.

This idiom comes from football, in which a pass has to be caught in order to be completed. Dropping the ball would result in an incomplete pass or, worse, on the opposing team gaining possession.

Image: Attentie Attentie

It seems that the world of boxing is ripe with idioms, as a third expression originated in "the sweet science" makes it to this list. To go the distance means to fully commit to a challenge, and it references when a fighter would last the entire length of a fight instead of being knocked down early.

Nowadays, the idiom is used to highlight the endurance and resilience of someone facing an adverse or challenging situation, and their willingness to see it through.

Image: Keith Johnston

This idiom sounds way more negative than it actually is. If you heard that someone is "running interference" on you, you might be suspicious and think that this ill-intentioned stranger is trying to sabotage your life in any way. However, it might surprise you to know that this idiom means the opposite: If you are running interference on someone, you are in fact trying to deal with someone’s problems as soon as they happen. This idiom comes from the way football players protect the player who has the ball by physically blocking the opposing team.

Image: Clark Tai

Some parents believe that the best way to teach a kid to swim is to throw them into the deep end of a swimming pool, in order for their survival instincts to kick in. While we definitively don’t approve of this method, a situation like this was more than likely the origin of this idiom.

To be "thrown in at the deep end" means to make someone begin a difficult challenge (like a new job) without preparing them for it. As we mentioned before, this idiom comes from the different ends of a swimming pool, of which one is shallow for beginners while the other is deeper and more suitable for experts.

Linguistic smothies

Twirling, as in twisting and whirling? 10 common portmanteaus

We all know that brunch means breakfast plus lunch, or that Eurasia is used to refer to the connected European and Asian continents. But did you know that words like twirl, smog, or Texarkana are in the same category of portmanteaus or blend words?

Portmanteaus (from the French porte-manteau, ‘cloak-carrier’, a suitcase that opens in two equal parts) are terms formed by combining two or more words, their sounds, or their meanings. They were named by Lewis Carrol (the one from Alice in Wonderland) to explain the logic behind some odd words in his poem Jabberwocky: like a porte-manteau that you open in two parts, portmanteaus are opened to reveal two meanings. Let’s explore some common portmanteaus (and also some that are false).

This word is used to talk about anything that spins or rotates, like someone doing a pirouette or moving their thumbs around each other. It is a term common in everyday language, but did you know it’s a blend of two words?

Yes, twirl comes from combining twist and whirl, both in sound and meaning. A twirl, then, is a rotation (twist) that happens rapidly (whirl). Something to think about the next time you find yourself twirling your thumbs.

The word ‘popsicle’ was originally the name of an ice pop brand started by Frank Epperson, who forgot a bucket of powdered lemonade on his porch and found it frozen the next morning. But how did the word ‘popsicle’ come to be?

This treat was originally called the "Epsicle ice pop", a combination of Epperson and icicle. Allegedly, Frank’s children started calling it a ‘popsicle’ (pop + icicle) and insisted the name be changed. In time, the brand became so popular that it became the usual term for any ice pop.

If you ever find yourself near the Texas-Arkansas border, you might find a city called Texarkana. In fact, you might find two cities called Texarkana, one in each state, both in the Texarkana Metropolitan Area.

It’s not clear who named them, but everyone agrees that Texarkana is a portmanteau for Texas-Arkansas-Louisiana. Both cities claim to have the same birth date, but we can debunk this: Arkansan Texarkana was founded a year before Texan Texarkana.

First of all, what is a contrail? Contrails are the line-shaped clouds left by aircraft, missiles, or rockets as a result of engine exhaust vapor combining with low temperatures. The vapor of the engines condenses when it contacts the cold atmosphere, leaving a trail, so condensation + trail: contrail.

Sadly for couch potatoes everywhere, it is a proven fact that exercise makes you feel good. This is because, during physical exercise, our brain creates endorphins, which work as painkillers and mood boosters.

Why are these natural painkillers called this way? You might remember the word morphine, the name of a common opiate analgesic. Endorphins are endogenous, meaning they are created by our organism. Combine this word with an old spelling of morphine, endogenous + morphin: endorphin.

Any sitcom fan might tell you that the appeal of the genre is not about the narrative arcs but the funny situations the characters find themselves in.

This comedic format, originally produced for radio, was first called situational comedy. With time, it was combined into a portmanteau, situational + comedy: sitcom.

Let’s have a look at a false portmanteau. For centuries before sugar was brought to Europe, parsnips were used as a sweetener. Ancient Romans called them pastinaca, now part of their scientific name (pastinaca sativa). How did they come to be called parsnips?

It is a widespread belief that parsnip is a portmanteau for parsley + turnip, since parsnip leaves look similar to parsley, but this is not true. In Old French, parsnips were called pasnaie, a word that Old English adopted as pasnepe. The ending -nepe meant turnip, so in time, pasnepe evolved into parsnip. So, not a blended word, but one that you will find in many portmanteau lists.

Being electrocuted is not a pleasant experience, and the origins of the word are as gruesome as the thing described. In the late 19th Century, the state of New York adopted the electric shock as the standard form of capital punishment. Newspapers covering the first execution by this method mixed the words electric + execution, coining the portmanteau electrocution.

Lacking a judicial term to describe accidental deaths caused by electricity, electrocution came to be used for all incidents involving an electric shock.

Air pollution is an unfortunate reality in our current world, and words like smog are a byproduct of these environmental issues. The city of London has suffered from bad air quality and fog for many centuries, an issue only worsened by smoke during the Industrial Revolution.

This phenomenon, also called pea soup fog, eventually became known as smog, a portmanteau of smoke + fog. The term not only describes the greyish color associated with it, but also the smell produced by chemical contaminants.

Let’s end our list with a portmanteau nearly as old as the profession it names. In the English language, the word shepherd is recorded as early as the 12th Century, though it had been in use for many centuries before that. Middle English sceepherde comes from Old English scēaphyrde, a portmanteau for scēap (sheep) + hierde (herdsman, someone who keeps domesticated animals).

The original term was only used for animal keepers, but eventually gained the added meaning of ‘leader’ or ‘guide’. Lewis Carroll might have named portmanteaus in the 19th Century, but they have existed since the dawn of time.