[Effy the kitten with ball*) |
While the origin of the word ball in English is rather fuzzy, its
primary meaning is quite clearly, i.e., according to the Oxford Dictionary, a solid or
hollow spherical or egg-shaped object that is kicked,
thrown, or hit in a game. Clearly, a really heavy one that requires explosive
power to launch is a cannon ball, not an object to play with. On a smaller
basis, balls can be loaded into cartridges and cause terrible casualties. For
that matter, a great ball of fire is also rather threatening. On a less serious
note, ball in baseball can mean that the pitch fails to cross the
plate between the knees and numbers of a player and within the side boundaries
of the home plate. Not surprisingly but quite differently, testicles are sometimes referred to as balls., This may explain the application of the word to describe
the willingness to take a great risk as in the sentence General MacArthur
had the balls to land at Inchon. Confusingly, derived from a completely
different root, a ball is a formal dance from which probably the term having a ball, i.e., having a good time, may
have been derived, although my forementioned kitten might disagree.
The
French balle also is generally used to refer to the toy as in the short
form of ballon. However, it refers to pills, which are round, and
bullets and slugs, which generally are not. In the days of the French Franc
(pre-Euro), it was another term for that national currency. In agriculture, a balle
refers to a bale in English and applies to any similar bulky packaging, round
or not.
Russian
is even more generous is the use. шар [shar] refers to the toy but also to a globe and
bowl and other round objects. In the plural, it is another term for eyes. It is
used as a term for a lightbulb. Russian even uses it for a vote or ballet. (If
a language refers to communication tower as an “object”, everything is
possible).
So, as true for many languages, words evolve to expand their meaning to
directly and not-so directly connected items and sometimes retain the use when
the original shape of the object changes.
Balls really roll far away sometimes.
* Picture captions help the blind fully access the Internet.
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