quword 趣词
Word Origins Dictionary
- 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. - 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."
- ball pen




- "= ball-point pen", 1940s; earliest use found in Esquire Magazine.