MONITOR QUIZ: Sports Terms With Strange Names
Listed below are common words in our language; however, they have a different meaning on the playing field. According to "Webster's Sports Dictionary," sport does, in fact, have a language of its own. "It is a language that is often crisp and to the point, sometimes witty and descriptive." For example, where would you find a fireman and smoke? Answer: in baseball! A fireman is a relief pitcher, and to smoke is to throw fastballs to a batter. See if you can identify the summer sports!
Sources: "Webster's Sports Dictionary" (1976); "The Language of Sport" (1982), by Tim Considine.
1. eagle
2. love
3. bird (or shuttle)
4. hoop
5. clothesline
6. petticoat
7. morning glory
8. apple
9. lollipop
10. apron
11. willow
12. pillow
13. bagel
14. coffee grinder
15. handcuff
16. jellyfish
17. lace
18. soup
BONUS. And what is a pudding????
ANSWERS
(1) eagle (golf) a score of two strokes less than par for a ball; (2) love (tennis) a score of zero; (3) bird (badminton) a shuttlecock made of nylon or goose feathers; (4) hoop (croquet) a wicket; (5) clothesline (baseball) a line drive, aka "a frozen rope"; (6) petticoat (archery) the part of the target on the outside with no scoring value; (7) morning glory (horse racing) a horse that shows great speed in the morning workout but does poorly in races; (8) apple - a baseball; (9) lollipop (tennis) a ball that is easy to hit; (10) apron (golf) area of closely cut grass near the putting green; (11) willow (cricket) a bat; (12) pillow (canoeing) a large rock that allows water over it smoothly; (13) bagel (tennis) to win in six straight games; (14) coffee grinder (sailing) a two-hand winch with handles on both sides for hoisting a sail; (15) handcuff (baseball) to hold a batter or team to a few hits; (16) jellyfish (swimming) a face-down float with arms and legs hanging down; (17) lace (tennis) to hit a ball with notable force or power; (18) soup (surfing) the fast-moving white water that rolls shoreward; BONUS ANSWER: A pudding is a British term for a playing field thoroughly soaked by rain.
