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North American sports reporting

A list of 25 words by yarb.

  • stakewas added by yarb and appears on 46 lists
  • stripewas added by yarb and appears on 22 lists
  • stanzawas added by yarb and appears on 45 lists
  • solvewas added by yarb and appears on 24 lists
  • wirewas added by yarb and appears on 39 lists
  • x for ywas added by yarb and appears on just this list
  • playwas added by yarb and appears on 79 lists
  • pick upwas added by yarb and appears on 8 lists
  • collectwas added by yarb and appears on 27 lists
  • drop a decisionwas added by yarb and appears on just this list
  • postwas added by yarb and appears on 62 lists
  • doorstepwas added by yarb and appears on 12 lists
  • wave offwas added by yarb and appears on just this list
  • dishwas added by yarb and appears on 31 lists
  • blankwas added by yarb and appears on 43 lists
  • shutoutwas added by yarb and appears on 5 lists
  • score a tallywas added by yarb and appears on just this list
  • icewas added by yarb and appears on 80 lists
  • streakwas added by yarb and appears on 41 lists
  • storiedwas added by yarb and appears on 10 lists
  • rookiewas added by yarb and appears on 21 lists
  • niftywas added by yarb and appears on 57 lists
  • authorwas added by yarb and appears on 47 lists
  • dandywas added by yarb and appears on 83 lists
  • snapwas added by yarb and appears on 89 lists

About

North American sports reporting seems to use vernacular to a much greater extent than its British equivalent. I think this is partly because of the stat-heavy nature of NA sports: reports would be deadly dull if there weren't plenty of synonyms for score. But there are words like nifty and dandy which are on their way to being fossilised in the back pages.

This list is meant to focus on general words used in reporting of various sports rather than sport-specific technical terms (e.g. layup or glove stop), which have their equivalent in soccer or any other game. Unless they're really cool, like doorstep.

Comments

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  • reesetee commented on the list north-american-sports-reporting

    Great idea, yarb! I've always felt like I needed an English-to-Sports/Sports-to-English dictionary. If I cared enough about sports, that is. ;-)

    January 11, 2008

  • john commented on the list north-american-sports-reporting

    Fantastic list! Your mention of the British equivalent reminds me of Keith Talent from "London Fields," usually a barely-intelligible oaf, who snaps into a fluid, fluent, and entirely television-derived announcerese when narrating a darts match.

    January 12, 2008