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Weird sport related phrases
July 23, 2006, 18:30
wordmaticWeird sport related phrases
1. Keep your eye on the ball
2. Head in the game
3. Winningest Team, coach, player
4. [Randy Wolf is recovering from] Tommy John surgery.
July 23, 2006, 20:49
KallehI was really surprised to see "winningest" in the dictionary, even though it is called "informal." It's a strange word.
July 24, 2006, 05:19
Graham NiceWinningest was used yesterday by the BBC!!! Tiger Woods is now the second most winningest Major tournament golfer.
July 24, 2006, 11:39
arnieWe had a thread about this for a while in 2002; see
https://wordcraft.infopop.cc/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/74160389...596041821#8596041821I'm sure there are plenty more, though.
Build a man a fire and he's warm for a day. Set a man on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.
July 25, 2006, 17:40
wordnerdquote:
Originally posted by Graham Nice:
Winningest was used yesterday by the BBC!!! Tiger Woods is now the second most winningest Major tournament golfer.
Is that how they used it? I'd say "the second winningest" rather than "the second
most winningest".
July 26, 2006, 07:33
Graham Nicequote:
Originally posted by wordnerd:
quote:
Originally posted by Graham Nice:
Winningest was used yesterday by the BBC!!! Tiger Woods is now the second most winningest Major tournament golfer.
Is that how they used it? I'd say "the second winningest" rather than "the second
most winningest".
Are you implying that one sounds any better than the other?
July 27, 2006, 16:00
shufitzquote:
Originally posted by Graham Nice:
Are you implying that one sounds any better than the other?
Or perhaps that one sounds "
less not quite right than the other?
July 28, 2006, 10:37
wordmaticquote:
Or perhaps that one sounds "less not quite right than the other?
That's it! Oh, and the word for Less Not Quite Right is LNQR.
OK, I thought of another one (weird sports phrase). When a gymnast lands perfectly at the end of a routine on the uneven parallel bars, they say she "really stuck that landing."
To [really] stick the landing--is the image one of a dart that lands in the bullseye or something?
July 28, 2006, 15:37
CaterwaullerI thought "stick the landing" means to stand firm when dismounting - as in gymnastics.
*******
"Happiness is not something ready made. It comes from your own actions.
~Dalai Lama
July 28, 2006, 16:20
jerry thomasSpeaking of weird sports related phrases, in Webb City, Missouri, when they discovered that the Boys & Girls Club was occupying an unsafe building, the Mayor declared, "Someone dropped the
ball." (from the
Joplin Globe)
August 04, 2006, 06:27
wordmaticSports-related metaphors are sprinkled all over the corporate and political landscape. In fact, there is a book, the name of which escapes me--something like
Hardball for Women, which discusses the differences in male and female speech patterns and advises women to use sports metaphors if they want to get ahead in business.
August 04, 2006, 13:51
SeanahanBeing a sports fan for most of my life, I honestly can't find anything wrong with "winningest". It sounds a lot better than "most winning". For this same reason, "second most winningest" is completely absurd. Both "second most winning" and "second winningest" are completely acceptable.
I realize where you are coming from when you say that "winningest" is abhorrent, but I've heard it for so long that to me, "most winning" sounds a bit off.
August 04, 2006, 15:57
zmježd "winningest" is abhorrentWhyever would somebody say it's abhorrent?
Winning is an adjective, and
winningest is its superlative form. I think sombody may have dropped the ball in grammar school.
—Ceci n'est pas un seing.
August 04, 2006, 16:39
jerry thomasThat's the abhorrentest superlativist ball-droppingest remark we ever conceived of.
More superlatives than you can shake a stick at.
August 04, 2006, 19:45
SeanahanWell, from the previous discussion, it seemed like people were really against it.
As for grammar school, they taught me just about nothing about grammar. I learned not to use "ain't", and that's the extent of it.
August 04, 2006, 20:08
KallehWell, my defensiveness is coming out, I suppose. I was the first to question "winningest" by saying, "it's a strange word." I hadn't heard of it and was surprised that it's a word. That's all. I am not becoming a prescriptivist, I promise.
Remember, this "strange word" phrase is coming from someone who regularly uses "epicaricacy."
August 06, 2006, 16:07
Duncan Howellquote:
Oh, and the word for Less Not Quite Right is LNQR.
Yippeeee! As a Scrabble addict, I'm always on the lookout for strange and beautiful stuff like words with no vowels and words with a "Q" but no "U". LNQR works BOTH ways!!! But wait...it isn't listed in the official Scrabble dictionary. Now, how did they miss that little jewel????