Sports Talk A Dictionary of Sports Metaphors

Subjects:

• Popular Culture » Sports

Awards:

• Choice Outstanding Academic Book, 1989

Reviews:

• An alphabetical listing of more than 1,700 metaphors from a wide variety of sports, games, and amusements. Each entry gives a definition, an example of proper usage, the metaphor's source (sometimes probable), and the date of origin if known. Metaphors have been painstakingly gathered from such varied sources as books, periodicals, and newspapers as well as radio and television and even speeches, interviews, and conversations. When encountered they have been checked against a number of cited works. An appendix classifies these metaphors etymologically, listing sources from animal games to yo-yo. Coauthored by professors of linguistics and of health, physical education, and recreation, this book will be of interest to many linguists, etymologists, journalists, and historians and other students of American culture, as well as to aficionados of sports. It should also provide informative and entertaining browsing, depicting how filled our language is with sports metaphors, many of whose derivations are little known: `the devil to pay,' `hazard a guess,' `red herring,' etc. Even libraries with numerous other sports dictionaries will want this work. Recommended for high school, public, and academic libraries.
  —Choice

Table of Contents:

• Preface
• Key to Works Cited
• The Dictionary
• Classification of Metaphors According to Sport
• Index