go yard (1988)

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On Sat, 15 Oct 2005 15:41:58 -0400, Benjamin Zimmer wrote:

>Sunday's "On Language" column about baseball lingo has a request for
>information about the origin of "go yard" meaning 'hit a home run'. I
>presume "go yard" is intended to be elliptical for "go the whole
>distance of the ballyard", or words to that extent.

Sorry... "words to that *effect*". I committed this same malaprop
(eggcorn?) on alt.usage.english not too long ago...


--Ben Zimmer