5 Sports Idioms: From 'Jump the Gun' to 'Slam Dunk'

Are you a fan of sports and leisure activities? Some people enjoy baseball but not fishing. Others might like basketball more than track and field. But no matter what sport or leisure activity you prefer, chances are, there’s an English idiom that originates from it. This week, we’ll get you into an active frame of mind as you learn about five idioms from five different sporty activities.

1. Track and Field—'Jump the Gun'

First up is track and field. This sport encompasses a wide variety of physical activities, including high jump, shotput, and pole vault. Athletes perform these amazing feats on the field. And on the track are the ones who run, and running is the source of the first idiom in the list. Can you guess what phrase that is? Think about what might happen to runners if they begin sprinting before the signal goes off. This action is called jumping the gun and might lead to disqualification. 

To “jump the gun” in a figurative sense means to act hastily or prematurely, and the expression has been used in this sense since the 1940s. You might hear the phrase used in a sentence like “Allie jumped the gun and regretted investing too much money before learning the ins and outs of the stock market.” Interestingly, the phrase “jump the gun” took the place of an earlier phrase from about 1900, “beat the pistol.”

2. Baseball—'In the Ballpark'

Now, let’s play baseball. The first official baseball game was played in New Jersey in 1846. Obviously, baseball is played in a ballpark. If you are “in the ballpark” in a figurative sense, however, you are talking about an approximation or educated guess that is within reasonable limits. According to Dictionary.com, this phrase is an Americanism dating to the late 1800s or early 1900s—somewhere in that ballpark. The Online Etymology Dictionary, on the other hand, states that “in the ballpark” originated in 1954 as jargon first used by atomic weapons scientists to refer to the expected area where a missile might land. 

Regardless of exactly when the phrase came into being, it is widely used today. Let’s say that Jim is guessing Bob’s age, but Bob doesn’t want to tell Jim the exact number. Thirty-year-old Bob could say that Jim is “in the ballpark” if Jim guesses “late 20s.” You might also hear “ballpark” used as an adjective, as in “I’m not sure how much Daisy owes me, but the ballpark amount is $100.”

---

3. Basketball—'Slam Dunk'

Another ballgame that is the origin of an interesting phrase is basketball, invented in 1891 by Dr. James Naismith. Back then, the game was different than it is now. For example, at first, players used a soccer ball, and the nets were peach baskets that still had their bottoms. In addition, dribbling wasn’t part of the game, and neither were slam dunks, shots that are forcefully put into the basket. The person first credited with a slam dunk is a 7-foot-tall player from Oklahoma A&M, Bob Kurland, who accomplished this in 1944 against Temple University. Kurland later called it “an unintentional accident.” (Aren’t all accidents unintentional? But that’s a topic for another day.)

Nowadays, the phrase “slam dunk” is used to mean something certain to be accomplished. It is usually used as a noun, as in “Getting the customer to sign up for another year of service was a slam dunk.” In other words, it was very easy to do. “Slam dunk” can also be used as a compound adjective with a hyphen, as in “a slam-dunk success.”

4. Fishing—'Hook, Line, and Sinker'

Have we hooked you yet with sports-related phrases? If not, you might enjoy this fishing-related idiom. Someone who falls for something “hook, line, and sinker” believes it completely and totally. This phrase has been used to mean “to a great degree” since about 1865. Apparently, fish sometimes swallow more than just the bait. They might gobble up everything but the fishing pole: There’s the hook, which holds the bait; there’s the line, which joins the hook to the fishing pole; and there’s the sinker, a leaded weight that makes a fishing line go below the water’s surface. If you’re a fish or a gullible person, watch out for those hooks, lines, and sinkers!

5. Rifling—'In the Cross Hairs'

Last up is a phrase that comes from rifling, which involves the use of targets. People taking aim at something far away use optical devices that have cross hairs to center the target. Likewise, it can be said that people who attack and criticize others have their victims “in the cross hairs.” Believe it or not, originally cross hairs on instruments such as telescopes and micrometers were made from spiderwebs. In fact, starting in the early 1800s, before they were called cross hairs, these lines were also called “spider-lines.” 

In both the literal and figurative cases, “cross hairs” is usually two words, but it can be one word. According to Merriam-Webster, the first known use of crosshairs was in 1884.

Conclusion

In this episode, we’ve enjoyed all kinds of fun activities, including running and fishing. It’s time to take a rest!

Image courtesy of Shutterstock.

That segment was written by Bonnie Mills, the author of The Curious Case of the Misplaced Modifier, who blog at sentencesleuth.blogspot.com.