- pellet
- pellet: [14] Etymologically, a pellet is a ‘little ball’. It comes via Old French pelote (a relative of Spanish pelota ‘ball’, from which the name of the Basque ball-game pelota [19] comes) from Vulgar Latin *pilotta, a diminutive form of Latin pila ‘ball’ (source of English pill [15] and piles ‘haemorrhoids’ [15]). Pelt ‘throw things at’ [15] may have originated as a contraction of pellet (although a possible alternative source is Latin pultāre ‘hit’); and platoon comes from a diminutive form of French pelote.
=> pelota, pelt, piles, platoon - bale (n.)
- "large bundle or package," early 14c., from Old French bale "rolled-up bundle," from Frankish or some other Germanic source (such as Old High German balla "ball"), from Proto-Germanic *ball-, from PIE *bhel- (2) "to blow, swell" (see bole).
- ball (n.1)
- "round object," Old English *beal, from or corresponding to Old Norse bollr "ball," from Proto-Germanic *balluz (cognates: Old High German ballo, German Ball), from PIE root *bhel- (2) "to blow, inflate, swell" (see bole).
Meaning "testicle" is from early 14c. Ball of the foot is from mid-14c. A ball as an object in a sports game is recorded from c. 1200; To have the ball "hold the advantage" is from c. 1400. To be on the ball is 1912, from sports. Ball-point pen first recorded 1946. Ball of fire when first recorded in 1821 referred to "a glass of brandy;" as "spectacularly successful striver" it is c. 1900. - balloon (n.)
- 1570s, "a game played with a large inflated leather ball," from Italian pallone "large ball," from palla "ball," from a Germanic source akin to Langobardic palla (from Proto-Germanic *ball-, from PIE *bhel- (2) "to blow, swell;" see bole) + -one, suffix indicating great size.
Perhaps also borrowed in part from French ballon (16c.), altered (after balle) from Italian pallone. It also meant the ball itself (1590s), which was batted back and forth by means of large wooden paddles strapped to the forearms. In 17c., it also meant "a type of fireworks housed in a pasteboard ball" (1630s) and "round ball used as an architectural ornament" (1650s). Acquired modern meaning after Montgolfier brothers' flights, 1783. As a child's toy, it is attested from 1848; as "outline containing words in a comic engraving" it dates from 1844. Also see -oon. - balls (n.)
- "testicles," early 14c., from plural of ball (n.1). See also ballocks. Meaning "courage, nerve" is from 1928. Balls to the wall, however, probably is from World War II Air Forces slang, from the ball that topped the aircraft throttle, thrust to the bulkhead of the cockpit to attain full speed. Ball-busting "difficult" is first recorded 1944; ball-buster, disparaging for "dominant female," is from 1974.
- Bic (n.)
- popular type of plastic ball-point pen, designed c. 1950 in France, named 1953 as a shortened form of company co-founder Marcel Bich (1914-1994).
- Biro (n.)
- proprietary name of a type of ball-point pen, 1947, from László Bíró, the Hungarian inventor. The surname means "judge."
- bollix (v.)
- "bungle," respelling (perhaps euphemistic) of bollocks, plural of bollock "testicle," from Old English beallucas "testicles," from Proto-Germanic *ball-, from PIE *bhel- (2) "to inflate, swell" (see bole). Related: Bollixed; bollixing.
- bullpen (n.)
- also bull-pen, 1915, in the baseball sense, from bull (n.1) + pen (n.2); perhaps from earlier slang meaning "temporary holding cell for prisoners" (1809). Bullpen also was the name of a baseball-like game played in U.S. late 19c.
- football (n.)
- open-air game involving kicking a ball, c. 1400; in reference to the inflated ball used in the game, mid-14c. ("Ãe heued fro þe body went, Als it were a foteballe," Octavian I manuscript, c. 1350), from foot (n.) + ball (n.1). Forbidden in a Scottish statute of 1424. One of Shakespeare's insults is "you base foot-ball player" [Lear I.iv]. Ball-kicking games date back to the Roman legions, at least, but the sport seems first to have risen to a national obsession in England, c. 1630. Figurative sense of "something idly kicked around, something subject to hard use and many vicissitudes" is by 1530s.
Rules of the game first regularized at Cambridge, 1848; soccer (q.v.) split off in 1863. The U.S. style (known to some in England as "stop-start rugby with padding") evolved gradually 19c.; the first true collegiate game is considered to have been played Nov. 6, 1869, between Princeton and Rutgers, at Rutgers, but the rules there were more like soccer. A rematch at Princeton Nov. 13, with the home team's rules, was true U.S. football. Both were described as foot-ball at Princeton.Then twenty-five of the best players in college were sent up to Brunswick to combat with the Rutgers boys. Their peculiar way of playing this game proved to Princeton an insurmountable difficulty; .... Two weeks later Rutgers sent down the same twenty-five, and on the Princeton grounds, November 13th, Nassau played her game; the result was joyous, and entirely obliterated the stigma of the previous defeat. ["Typical Forms of '71" by the Princeton University Class of '72, 1869]
- rounder (n.)
- 1620s, "a sentinel," agent noun from round (n.) on notion of "one who makes the rounds." Sense of "chronic drunkard or criminal" is from 1854, on notion of one who is habitually in and out of jails or bars. Rounders, a baseball-like game, attested from 1828.
- spheroid (n.)
- "body resembling, but not identical with, a sphere," 1560s, from Latin sphaeroides, from Greek sphairoeides "ball-like, spherical," from sphaira (see sphere) + -oeides "form" (see -oid). As an adjective from 1767. Related: Spheroidal.
- Wiffle
- hollow, perforated plastic ball, registered trademark name (The Wiffle Ball Inc., Shelton, Connecticut, U.S.), claiming use from 1954. According to the company, designed in 1953 by David N. Mullany "in response to a lack of field space and numerous broken windows by his baseball-playing son," the name based on whiff (q.v.), baseball slang for a missed swing.
- ball pen
- "= ball-point pen", 1940s; earliest use found in Esquire Magazine.