Missing Sense of "Basketball"

Mullins, Bill AMRDEC Bill.Mullins at US.ARMY.MIL
Tue Jun 6 17:37:30 UTC 2006


>
> The OED has an entry for the word _basketball_, but omits the
> very common second sense of the word, namely the ball used in
> the game.
>
> Fred Shapiro
>

OED does have the similar sense of:
Football
Baseball
Golf ball
Billiard ball
Softball
Volleyball
Tennis ball
Cricket ball
polo ball
Whiffle ball
medicine ball
lacrosse ball
squash ball


Doesn't have:
Soccer ball (although the term is used in some citations for other
entries).
Racquetball
Bowling ball
stoop ball

Ambiguous:
"ping pong" is listed as having attributive senses, one citation of
which is "ping pong ball"
"hand ball" does have a sense for a ball, but not the one used in the
game as we know it today

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org



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