Sprechen Sie Fraulein?

1 September 2004

The Langenscheidt publishing group, a leading German dictionary publisher, plans to publish a guide it says will help men translate the subtexts of female conversation. The guide is written by comedian Mario Barth, famous for his stage show Men are Pigs…but so are Women.

Langenscheidt, best known for its yellow foreign language dictionaries, will launch sales of a 128-page book to translate such baffling female banter as: “Let’s just cuddle” into “No sex tonight please!.”

“Each themed chapter offers men behavioral tips and exposes hidden messages transmitted by women in everyday situations, such as on holiday or during shopping trips,” said Silke Exius, chief editor at Langenscheidt.

Other examples in the German-Woman/Woman-German “dictionary” due out in October include explaining why a woman asks a man to take interest in the pair of shoes she may be trying on.

She wants him to look because he’s about to pay for them.

Word of the Month: Labor

1 September 2004

In the United States, the first Monday in September is Labor Day, a day to celebrate and reward the achievements of the American worker. The holiday was originally proposed by the labor movement in 1882. In 1884 the holiday was moved to the current place on the calendar and it received its first government recognition by municipal governments. In 1887, the state of Oregon became the first to declare it an official state holiday. By 1894, 24 states and the federal government had recognized the holiday.

In honor of the holiday, our word of the month is labor, n.; physical exertion that supplies the material needs of the community; the body of people who provide this work. The term is from the Old French and originally meant simply physical exertion, a sense that survives today. The first sense listed here dates to 1776 when it was first used by Adam Smith. The use referring to the collective body of workers dates to 1839.

What follows is a glossary of terms associated with the organized labor movement:

agency shop, n.; a place of employment where the union represents (is the “agency” for) all workers, whether or not they are members of the union. Non-members must still pay union dues or, sometimes, are allowed to contribute an equivalent amount to a charitable organization. 1952. Cf. union shop.

apprentice, n., adj., & v.; a worker who is learning a craft or trade, to work as an apprentice; 1362, from the Old French aprendre, to learn.

arbitration, n.; a method of resolving disputes where the parties submit the matter for decision to a neutral judge; 1634, from an earlier 14th C. sense meaning an capricious decision, ultimately from the Latin via Old French. Binding arbitration is similar, except the parties agree to abide by the decision before it is made.

at-will, adj.; employment terms where an employee has no contract and works at the pleasure (“will”) of the employer.

black-leg, n. & v.; British term for one who works for an employer currently being struck, a strike-breaker; to work as a strike-breaker; from an older sense of the word meaning a general term of opprobrium; 1865. Cf. scab.

blacklist, n. & v.; a list of workers known for union activities who are not to be hired by an employer or employers in an industry; 1888, from a 17th C. sense meaning a list of criminals or undesirable persons.

blue collar, adj.; denoting a laborer or the working class; 1950, from denim work shirts commonly worn on the job, Cf. white collar.

blue flu, n.; labor action by police or other government workers not permitted to strike where large numbers take sick leave at the same time; from the blue uniforms worn by police. Cf. sick out.

brotherhood, n.; a union, esp. a railway union; 1883.

boycott, v.; to refuse to engage in commercial transactions with a business, in the context of labor until that business unionizes or otherwise reforms its labor practices; 1880, after Charles Boycott, an English land agent in Ireland who was subjected to the treatment for refusing to lower rents.

bump, v.; trans., to take the job a less senior employee; intrans., to lose one’s job to a more senior employee. 1941.

closed shop, n.; a place of employment where only union members are employed; 1904. Cf. union shop, open shop.

collective bargaining, n.; means of negotiating an employment contract where a group of employees negotiates as a single entity and all receive the same terms of employment; 1891.

company store, n.; a store owned by the employer where employees are required to shop, usually at exorbitant prices; 1872.

company union, n.; a union that exists only within a single company, with no connections to workers at other firms; 1917.

company town, n.; a town owned by a company where employees are required to live, later used metaphorically to denote a town dominated by a single employer; 1933.

craft union, n.; a union where all members are engaged in the same type of job, e.g., the Teamsters; also horizontal union; c.1926

dead time, n.; time when a worker is not actually engaged in work because preparations for it are underway, e.g., while waiting for delivery of materials; 1909.

escalator clause, n.; an element in a contract that requires an increase (or decrease) in pay or other benefits when certain conditions are met, e.g., a cost-of-living increase.

featherbedding, n.; the employment of superfluous staff, usually required by a union contract, hence the use as a verb meaning to be paid without having to work; 1921, from the metaphor of a comfortable place.

free rider, n.; a worker who benefits from a union’s collective bargaining without joining the union; 1941.

fringe benefit, n.; a perquisite of employment that is granted by the employer in addition to wages, e.g., a restaurant worker who gets free or discounted meals; 1952.

general strike, n.; a strike by all workers in an industry or by workers in key industries across a nation; 1810.

guild, n.; a medieval association, often of tradesmen, formed to promote the interests of the group; before 1000, from a coalescing of several Germanic roots into a single Old English word; starting in 1827, the word was revived for the naming of modern organizations.

hiring hall, n.; a union-run placement center where employers would register jobs which would be assigned to members by the union by either rotation or seniority.

hot cargo, n.; goods produced by a plant that is under a strike or by an employer that refuses to hire union members; some union contracts permit union members to refuse to handle such cargo.

hot goods, n.; goods produced in violation of labor laws.

independent union, n.; a union that is not affiliated with a national organization and not organized by the employer.

industrial union, n.; an organization of all the workers in a particular industry, regardless of their craft, e.g., the United Auto Workers; 1923; also vertical union.

informational picketing, n.; picketing to draw attention to a labor dispute without going on strike.

job action, n.; activities undertaken by workers as part of a labor dispute, can include work slowdowns and strikes.

journeyman, n.; a skilled tradesman who works as an employee of another; 1463, from the itinerant nature of such work.

local union, n.; a chapter of a national union.

lockout, v. & n.; to shut down a plant in response to a strike; 1868.

master, n.; a skilled tradesman who employs apprentices and journeymen; Old English, from the Latin magister.

mediation, n.; intercession by a third party to resolve a dispute; before 1387, from the Anglo Norman mediacion.

minimum wage, n.; the lowest wage that can be legally paid to an employee.

open shop, n.; a business where employment is not conditioned on union status. Cf. closed shop.

outlaw strike, n.; a work stoppage that violates a collective bargaining agreement that is currently in force.

picket, n. & v.; a group of striking employees who patrol the premises of a business to deter others from working or doing business there, to act as a picket; 1867 in the labor sense, from the military sense of a sentry, ultimately from the French picquet, a pointed stake used to mark a boundary or form a fence.

pork chopper, n.; an employee of the union, from the sense that they are well fed by the dues of the rank and file members.

raid, v.; to attempt to enroll members already belonging to another union.

recognize, v.; to accept a union as the legitimate agent for collective bargaining.

right to work, adj.; term used to describe laws prohibiting the requirement to join a union as a condition of employment; 1958.

sabotage, n.; the malicious destruction of an employer’s property as part of a job action; 1910, from the French sabot, a metal shoe used to hold railroad tracks in place, uprooted during railway strikes.

scab, n.; derogatory term for a worker who takes the place of a striking worker; 1777 in the labor sense, in use as a general term of abuse since c.1590, metaphorical use from the sense of a pustule or crust over a wound. Cf. black-leg.

secondary, adj.; used to denote action against a third party used to bring pressure in a labor dispute, e.g., a secondary boycott might target a firm’s customers, a secondary strike a firm’s suppliers.

shop steward, n.; union member in a shop or department elected to handle union matters and act as spokesman for that group; 1904. Steward is from an Old English term for an official who manages the affairs of a manor or household.

sick out, n.; job action where employees feign illness and do not report for work; 1970; formed from an analogy with walk out.

sit-down, adj.; used to describe strikes or protests where the strikers or protesters occupy the premises; 1936.

solidarity, n.; unity of interests and aspirations, esp. of trade unions; from the French solidarité, 1841. Also recently used to translate the name of the anti-communist Polish trade union movement founded in 1980.

strike, v. & n.; to cease working in protest of pay or working conditions; 1768, originally a reference to sailors striking, or lowering, the yards on ships to prevent them from putting to sea.

sweatshop, n., place of employment that demands long hours and provides low pay; 1895

sweetheart contract, n.; derogatory term for an agreement that grants concessions to the employer or benefits to the union at the expense of the rank-and-file members; 1959.

sympathetic strike, n.; a work stoppage by employees at one firm or plant done in support of a work stoppage at another.

union, n.; an association of workers that promotes the general welfare of all members; 1833.

union shop, n.; a place of employment that requires union membership as a condition of employment; 1904.

whipsaw, v.; to engage is a series of surprise work stoppages against an industry, striking at one employer after another.

white collar, adj.; denoting non-manual labor; 1919, from the collars of shirts worn by clerical workers. Cf. blue collar.

wildcat strike, n.; a work stoppage that is not sanctioned by the union; 1937, from a 19th C. sense of wildcat meaning a rash or risky venture.

work to rule, v.; to scrupulously observe the terms of one’s contract and nothing more as a form of job action; 1950.

yellow dog, adj.; opposed to trade unions, e.g., a yellow-dog contract prohibits workers from joining a union; 1904.

Book Review: Summer Reading List

1 August 2004

This month in our book review section we take a look at three books that will make for some interesting summer reading. All three address word origins and all three consist of bite-sized sections that make for good commuter reading.

The first is the most interesting of the three, Paul McFedries’s Word Spy: The Word Lover’s Guide to Modern Culture. An offshoot of his excellent web site, www.wordspy.com, this is a book about neologisms and slang terms that denote the new facets of our ever-changing world. From accelerated culture (rapid cultural change) to wine porn (magazines and literature written for wine lovers), McFedries takes us on a linguistic excursion through our culture.

Word Spy starts out with a brief opening chapter on how words come into existence, an excellent overview of the topic that provides the theoretical underpinnings for understanding the rest of the book. But after this brief introduction, McFedries dives into the heart of the subject with twenty-one more chapters, each dealing with one aspect of our culture and the neologisms we have coined associated with it.

The chapters run the gamut of modern, post-industrial culture. McFedries gives us, for example, one on advertising, one on fast food, another on the dot-com boom and bust, and one on baby boomers. Each chapter is further divided into sub-sections that contain the neologisms. The chapter on activism includes terms like green collar worker (professional environmental activist), Frankenfood (genetically modified agricultural product), techno-strike (electronic attacks on the computer systems of an offending company or organization), lactivist (an advocate of breast feeding), and, of course, NIMBY (acronym for Not In My Back Yard, descriptive of activism aimed a preventing a socially important, but locally undesirable, institution or activity from setting up shop in one’s neighborhood).

The chapter on relationships and marriage treats us to fleshmeet (a face-to-face meeting of a group that knows each other from the internet), batmobiling (erecting emotional defenses before a relationship becomes intimate), bridezilla (a bride-to-be who in her eagerness for the perfect wedding becomes intolerable), and postmortem divorce (a stipulation that one is to be buried separately from one’s spouse).

The chapter on the modern workplace shows us cube (a semiprivate workspace), prairie dog (a verb meaning to stick your head above the walls of your cube out of curiosity for what is going on outside), ego wall (a wall hung with awards and photos of the employee with famous people), virtual office (a employee or business with no fixed address, operating with mobile phones and laptops), and corridor cruiser (an employee who spends his day going from one meeting to another).

Punditocracy (the collection of political commentators), theocon (a member of the religious right), push poll (a means of advertising by asking loaded questions in the guise of a pollster), and trial balloon leak (revealing a planned policy in an attempt to gauge popular support while maintaining deniability) are all dealt with in the chapter on politics.

Most of these terms come with usage citations and the book is indexed, making it a useful reference in years to come.

While all of them are recent coinages, most of the terms in the book were probably obsolete when the book was published, if they ever had wide currency in the first place. Such is the nature of slang in our accelerated culture. But that doesn’t mean that they are not fun to read about.

If only more word books were like Word Spy. McFedries has given us a well-researched book, yet one that is readable and fun. Nor does it fall into the trap of alphabetic organization—which is useful for reference books, but makes it difficult to see relationships and patterns in the words and phrases. Any word lover is going to enjoy this one.

Paperback; 432 pages; Broadway Books; February 2004; $15.95.

The second of our books is Words to the Wise: A Lighthearted Look at the English Language, by Michael J. Sheehan. This is a collection of questions and answers about words and language that Sheehan has been asked and has answered on his weekly radio program of that name. The program airs on WTCM in Traverse City, Michigan. The author is a retired professor of English.

Sheehan’s topics are from the entire spectrum of language and linguistics. He answers etymology questions, ones on usage, spelling, grammar, style, writing tips, and just about anything relating to language. His answers are brief, a paragraph long or two at the most.

And unlike some books of this nature, the answers in Words to the Wise are well-researched and based on a solid foundation of scholarship. Sheehan doesn’t fall for the linguistic urban legends that many others do and he is not afraid to say that the answer is unknown. His responses are brief, but correct. Where he is prescriptivist, his advice is sensible and recognizes that language changes and that a writer shouldn’t be straitjacketed by the past.

If the book has a drawback, it is a lack of organization. There are no chapters or sections. The book is simply a long string of questions and answers. This is enjoyable as an eclectic potpourri, but can be frustrating if you are trying to find a particular answer. Sheehan does, however, provide an index.
All in all, this is the ultimate in commuter reading. Keep a copy in your car for those moments when you are waiting for someone. The bite-sized Q&A are perfect to fill those wasted moments.

Paperback; 240 pages; Arbutus Press; May 2004; $15.00.

Our third and final book is Is That What It Means?: A Treasure Trove of Word Origins, by Max Oppenheimer. In many ways this is similar to Sheehan’s book above. Oppenheimer is also a retired university professor, this time a professor of foreign languages, and the book is a collection of articles that originally appeared in another format, here articles that originally appeared in a language column in the Sun City, Arizona Daily News and in Arizona Senior World. Oppenheimer’s articles are longer form than Sheehan’s, typically two pages each.

The book is more focused than Sheehan’s, dealing almost exclusively with etymology. Oppenheimer’s research is solid, at least when he sticks to straight etymology. His etymologies are well-researched and he makes some interesting associations between seemingly unrelated words. His ability to address cognates in a wide variety of languages is novel. Few are experienced in enough languages to attempt this consistently, and in this respect the book is particularly valuable.

It is where he strays from straight etymology into the wider realm of linguistics that Oppenheimer runs into trouble. He is clearly a fluent speaker of many languages, but he does not have a good grasp of basic linguistic theory (not surprising for a foreign languages professor, whose focus would be on grammatical instruction and literature). He is not a linguist and it shows. He occasionally delves into criticism of linguistics that he clearly does not understand. He also betrays a prescriptivist and curmudgeonly bent now and again. Fortunately, these incidents are few and the bulk of the book is solid.
Still, this is a minor flaw and Is That What It Means? will make a welcome addition to any summer reading list.

Paperback; 222 pages; Sunflower University Press; February 2004; $15.95

Word Watch: "Washington Read"

1 August 2004

One term that is is gaining some ground among those in government circles is the Washington read, the practice of standing in a bookstore and skimming the index of a new, tell-all book for references to yourself, instead of reading or buyrng the whole book.

Richard Armitage went so far as to admit to the 9/11 panel that he has given it “the Washington read"—i.e., he looked himself up in the index and then read “what was said about me.”
—“Womb It May Concern” by Sam Schechner, Slate.com, 26 March 2004

For power-readers, the “Washington read"—a perusal of the index and some corresponding text—has offered a shortcut some won’t admit to.
—“Making the List” by Ellen Gamerman, Baltimore Sun, 28 June 2004

Anyone who gave Clinton’s hefty book the Washington read (that is, a quick skim of the index pages) quickly discovered that Clinton made several mentions of Bossie.
—“You can’t teach an old attack dog new tricks,” by Eric Boehlert, Salon.com, 20 July 2004

Word of the Month: Olympic Games

1 August 2004

On the 13th of the month, the Olympic Games open in Athens Greece. It will be the 25th time the games have been held since the Olympics were revived in 1896. (Although it is the 28th modern Olympiad; three of the games were canceled during the two world wars.) In honor of the games and the athletes competing in them, our word of the month is Olympic Games, n.; originally games contested in honor of Zeus, held on the plain of Olympia in Greece every four to five years; the ancient games were first held ca.776 BC until they were abolished by Roman Emperor Theodosius in 394 AD; in modern use to denote the games established in 1896 by Baron de Coubertin.

What follows is an examination of words associated with the Olympics and Olympic sports.

agony, n.; anguish, pain; from the Greek agonia, meaning contest, struggle, ca.1386. The agon in ancient Greece were the spectators at games like the Olympics.

anchor, n.; from the Old English ancor, ultimately related to the Greek anc-, meaning bend or crook. The sense of the runner in the last leg of a relay race dates from 1934.

archery, n.; the skill and practice of using a bow and arrow, from the Old French archerie, before 1400. Archery was an Olympic medal sport from 1900 to 1920. It was reinstated in 1972.

athlete, n.; from the Latin athleta, ultimately from the Greek athletes, which in turn is from athlos, contest. In English use from 1528 to denote a participant in ancient games, from 1827 to denote modern participants in physical games and feats. The adjective athletic is from 1636. The noun athletics, denoting physical contests is from 1727. An obsolete form of the noun, athletic, is from 1605.

badminton, n.; a game similar to lawn tennis, played with shuttlecocks instead of balls, 1874; named after a town and estate in Gloucestershire, meaning the estate of a man named Baduhelm. An Olympic medal sport since 1992.

baseball, n.; a game popular in the United States where a batter hits a pitched ball and attempts to round a circuit of bases before being tagged with the ball by one of the nine defenders. The name of the game dates to 1744 and was used for various precursors of the modern game, the rules of which were codified in 1845. An Olympic medal sport since 1992.

basketball, n., game invented by James Naismith in 1892, where two teams of five compete to sink a ball into baskets hung ten feet high at either end of the court. Men’s basketball has been an Olympic sport since 1936, women’s since 1976.

bicycle, n. & v.; a two-wheeled vehicle powered by the rider, to ride a bicycle; adopted from French in 1868. The French word is a modern formation from the Latin bi-, two, and the Greek kuklos, wheel. The clipped form, cycling, has been in use since 1883. Cycling has been an Olympic sport since 1896.

box 1) n.; a blow from a fist; a Middle English word of unknown origin, ca.1385. Cognates in other Germanic languages are all borrowings from English. 2) v.; to hit with a fist; from the noun, 1519. 3) boxing, the sport of fighting with fists; 1711. Boxing has been an Olympic sport since 1904.

canoe, n. & v.; a small boat without a keel; 1555. From the Spanish canoa, ultimately from a native Haitian word. The verb meaning to paddle or propel a canoe is from 1842. Canoeing has been an Olympic sport since 1936.

Citius, Altius, Fortius, c.phr.; Latin phrase meaning faster, higher, stronger. The motto of the Olympic games since 1924.

decathlon, n.: an athletic contest of ten different track-and-field events; modern formulation from the Greek deca-, ten, and athlos, contest, 1912. The Olympic decathlon consists of the long jump, high jump, discus throw, shot put, javelin throw, 100 m race, 400 m race, 1,500 m race, 110 m hurdles, and the pole vault. The winner of the Olympic decathlon is dubbed “the world’s greatest athlete.”

discus, n.; a metal plate used in throwing competitions; from the Latin, ultimately from the Greek diskos.

dive, v.; to plunge into liquid; from two Old English verbs, dufan, meaning to duck or sink, and dyfan, to dip or submerge. Diving has been an Olympic sport since 1904.

dressage, n.; the discipline of training horses to perform precise movements; from the French, literally meaning training, 1936. Dressage has been an Olympic event since 1912.

épée, n.; a sword designed for thrusting; in competition, the same length as a foil, but heavier and stiffer. From the French word for sword, 1889.

equestrian, adj.; pertaining to horse riding; from the Latin eques meaning horseman, 17th century. Equestrian events have been competed at the Olympics since 1900.

eventing, n.; an equestrian competition that combines jumping and dressage; from one-, two-, or three-day event, 1965. Prior to 1952, Olympic competition in eventing was restricted to military officers.

fencing, n.; the art and discipline of swordmanship; a clipping of defence. The archaic noun fence dates to 1533 and the modern fencing is from 1581. The verb dates to 1598. Fencing has been an Olympic sport since 1896.

foil, n.; a light, flexible thrusting sword with a blunt point used for practice or competition; the word dates to 1594 and is of unknown origin. Possibly a reference to the blunted or “foiled” point or possibly from parrying or “foiling” an opponent’s thrust.

football, n.; a game where two teams attempt to kick a ball down a field to a goal at either end; from 1424. The modern game dates to 1863 when the English Football Association was created. Men’s football has been an Olympic sport since 1900, women’s since 1996.

Fosbury flop, n.; high-jumping technique in which the athlete attempts to clear the bar facing upwards, with back to the bar; after high-jumper Dick Fosbury who used the technique to win the gold medal in the 1968 Mexico City Games.

gymnasium, n.; a place to practice athletics; from the Latin and ultimately the Greek meaning literally to train while naked, 1598.

gymnastic, adj. & n.; from the Greek meaning skilled in athletics, this was the original English sense from 1574. The modern sense of gymnastics, meaning a set of exercises requiring strength and coordination, is from 1652. An Olympic sport since 1896.

handball, n.; a game between two teams of seven who throw, catch, and dribble a ball toward goals at either end the court. Men’s handball as been an Olympic sport since 1936; women’s since 1976.

heat, n.; originally a warm-up or practice race, now a race to qualify athletes for further competition; from the idea of warming up or getting hot, 1577. 

heptathlon, n.; an event comprising seven different athletic events; a modern formulation from the Greek hept-, seven, and athlos, contest, 1977. The constituent events in the Olympics are 100 m hurdles, long jump, high jump, 200 m race, shot put, javelin throw, and 800 m race. The Olympic heptathlon is a women’s event, the counterpart of the men’s decathlon. The heptathlon has been competed since 1984.

hippodrome, n.; a track for horses or chariot races; from the Greek hippo, horse, + dromus, race. In English use to refer to ancient race tracks since 1549.

hockey, n.; a game where two teams use sticks or clubs, curved at one end, to drive the ball toward goals at either end of the field; called field hockey in North America to distinguish it from ice hockey. Possibly from the Old French hoquet, meaning a shepherd’s crook, but early citations are lacking. Modern use of the word hockey dates to 1838. There is an isolated appearance of the word in the 16th C. Hockey has been an Olympic sport since 1908

hurdle, n.; a barrier across a racecourse that a runner must leap over, in plural form a footrace of this type; from the Old English hyrdel, a portable frame used for temporary fencing, in athletic usage since 1833

javelin, n., a light spear thrown by hand, now used primarily in athletic competition; from the French javeline, in English use from 1513.

judo, n.; martial art developed by Jigoro Kano in the 1880s; from the Japanese name for the sport, which in turn is derived from Chinese, jou, gentleness, and tao, way. Judo has been an Olympic sport since 1964.

jump the gun, c.phr.; to begin a race before the starter’s pistol is fired, metaphorically to begin any venture before one is supposed to; the phrase beat the gun/pistol has been in use since 1905. The switch to jump dates to at least 1942 and is American in origin.

kayak, n.; a small, covered boat allowing one or two passengers and propelled by a double-bladed paddle; from the Inuit qajaq; in English use from 1757. Kayaking has been an Olympic sport since 1936; women’s kayaking has been competed since 1948.

lap, v. & n.; to travel a single circuit of a racecourse, a single circuit of a racecourse, to pass a competing runner; from the sense meaning to fold or coil, from 1923 in the athletic sense.

marathon, n.; a running race of 26 miles, 385 yards (41.195 km), metaphorically any lengthy endeavor; in English use since the first modern Olympics in 1896; after a town on the Greek coast, the site of an Athenian victory over the Persians in 490 BC. The name of the modern race comes from the legend that a messenger ran the 22 miles from Marathon to Athens to bring news of the victory, dying just after delivering the message. Sometimes the messenger is identified as Pheidippides, who Herodotus records as running the 150 miles from Athens to Sparta to secure aid before the battle.

Olympiad, n.; period of time between one ancient Olympic competition and the next; from the Greek; in English usage since at least 1387. In modern use to mean the modern Olympic competitions, 1896.

palaestra, n.; a wrestling practice arena, a gymnasium; from the Greek, in English use from 1412.

pentathlon, n.; an event comprising five athletic events; from the Greek penta-, five, + athlos, contest; the modern pentathlon event in the Olympics consists of pistol shooting, épée fencing, 200 m swim, equestrian show jumping, and a 3,000 m running race. Prior to the advent of the heptathlon in 1984, the pentathlon was also a women’s athletic event consisting of running, hurdles, long jump, high jump, and shot put.

ping pong, n.; table tennis; echoic from the sound of the ball striking the paddle, since 1900. Ping pong has been an Olympic event since 1988.

relay, n.; a type of running race between teams of athletes, usually four, each member running one leg of the race; this sense is in English use from 1898. In earlier use to mean a set of hounds and horses posted to continue a hunt for a deer when the first set is tired. From ca.1410, from the Old French relais.

row, v.; to propel a boat via oars; from Old English, c.950. Rowing has been an Olympic sport since 1896.

sabre, n.; a curved, cutting sword; from the French, 1680. The French word is an unexplained alteration of the German sable; the origin of the German word is unknown. It is saber in American spelling.

sail, v.; to propel a boat using wind power; from the Old English siälan, ca.893. Sailing has been an Olympic sport since 1900.

shoot, v.; to move swiftly, to rush, to send forth, to throw or propel, esp. missile or bullets from a firearm; from the Old English scéotan, a common Germanic root. Shooting has been an Olympic event since 1896.

shuttlecock, n.; the object volleyed back and forth in badminton, consisting of a cork ball with a tail of feathers; from shuttle, meaning dart, + cock, in reference to the feathers; in use from 1522.

skeet, n.; a form of clay pigeon shooting in which pigeons are projected at a variety of angles along a semicircular range; the name was an American invention in 1926, modeled after the Old English scéotan, to shoot.

soccer, n.; a name for football, esp. in the United States; formed from Assoc., short for Association Football, a name that distinguished it from rugby; 1889.

softball, n., a game similar to baseball, but played with a larger ball which is pitched to the batter underhanded. The name dates to 1926, although the sport is somewhat older. Softball has been a women’s Olympic sport since 1996.

sprint, v. & n.; to run a short-distance at full speed, a race of this type; from the Old Norse spretta, in dialectical English until the 1860s when it became standard.

stadium, n.; an ancient unit of linear measure of 600 Greek or Roman feet, a race and racecourse of this length; in English use from 1398. By 1603, the sense had transferred to the place of competition

steeplechase, n.; a cross-country race with obstacles such as fences and water jumps; originally a horseracing term, 1793, later applied to footraces, 1864. From the phrase to hunt the steeple, a horseracing game where riders would race to the nearest church steeple, 1785.

swim, v.; to move through water; from Old English. Swimming has been an Olympic event since 1896.

table tennis, n.; a game of tennis played with paddles and a small ball on top of a table; 1887. Table tennis has been an Olympic event since 1988.

taekwondo, n.; a Korean martial art characterized by kicking and punching; from tae, kick, + kwon, fist, + do, art. In English use since 1967. An Olympic event since 2000.

tennis, n.; a racquet sport where players volley the ball back and forth over a net; in English use since c.1400 to denote an early form of the game now known as real tennis or court tennis. The modern game was originally known as lawn tennis, 1874, and clipped to simply tennis by 1878. The origin of the name is not certain, but is probably from the French tenez, meaning prepare to receive, a call made by the server. Tennis was competed at the Olympics from 1896 to 1924. The sport returned to the Olympics in 1988.

track, n.; a racecourse, 1836; US term for athletics; a clipping of track and field, 1934. From the older sense meaning a trail, 1470, from the Old French trac.

track and field, n.; athletics, track denotes running events and field the throwing and jumping events; 1905.

trap, n.; a device for projecting a clay pigeon into the air, 1812; clay pigeon shooting in general; from the sense of a device used to catch animals; Old English treppe.

volleyball, n.; a sport where teams volley a ball over a high net, 1896; from the French volée, simultaneous discharge of missiles, late-16th C. An Olympic sport since 1964.

weightlifting, n.; sport where the competitors lift ever increasing weights, 1896. An Olympic event since that year.

western roll, n.; high jumping technique where the athlete takes off with the leg nearest the bar and rolls towards the bar, clearing it horizontally and face down; 1964.

wrestle, v.; to strive to throw an opponent to the ground by grappling and holding; from Old English. Wrestling has been an Olympic sport since 1896.