[Ads-l] stacked

[Martin Schneider]

This is a good point. I am surprised this usage goes back as far as 1900 or
earlier.

I keep thinking of fantasy sports where a user might refer to her team as
"stacked." This has the effect of decoupling the "stack" metaphor from the
lineup card in baseball. Your football or basketball fantasy team is
similarly lined up in a column on the left side of your browser and you
might think of them as equally "stacked" if you approve of the team. Just a
thought.

On Sat, Jul 18, 2026 at 12:45 PM Laurence Horn <
00001c05436ff7cf-dmarc-request at listserv.uga.edu> wrote:

> In sports, the main reading I get is for baseball lineups, where the
> hitters come to the plate one by one.  A lineup is more likely to be
> described as "stacked" than, say, a pitching staff or a bench, and it's
> more unusual for football or basketball where there's no sense that the
> players are arranged to do their thing one at a time.
>
> LH
>
> On Sat, Jul 18, 2026 at 12:18 PM Ben Zimmer <
> 00001aae0710f4b7-dmarc-request at listserv.uga.edu> wrote:
>
> > On Sat, Jul 18, 2026 at 12:15 PM Ben Zimmer <bgzimmer at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > > While this usage feels fairly common, the relevant sense of "stacked"
> > > isn't explicitly covered in any dictionary I checked. Wiktionary gets
> > close
> > > with:
> > >
> > > ---
> > > https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/stacked
> > > 7. (sports, video games, of a team) Having many skilled players.
> > > ---
> > >
> > > It's plausible that "stacked" developed in sports as elliptical for
> > > "stacked with talent" and the like, and then got extended to
> > entertainment.
> > > In the databases, I see other less elliptical variations like
> > > "well-stacked" (perhaps modeled on "well-stocked"), "star-stacked"
> > (perhaps
> > > modeled on "star-studded"), and "talent-stacked."
> > >
> > > Early examples in sports:
> > >
> > > ---
> > >
> > >
> >
> https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-bayonne-herald-and-greenville-regist/201886735/
> > > Bayonne (NJ) Herald, Dec. 5, 1896, p. 3, col. 2
> > > The Alva A.C. were defeated by the well-stacked team of the Bergen
> Point
> > > A.C., on the New Jersey A.C. grounds, on Saturday last, by the score
> of 6
> > > to 0.
> > > ---
> > >
> https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-province-stacked-team/201886835/
> > > The Province (Vancouver, BC), Aug. 27, 1908, p. 11, col. 1
> > > They are bound to lose the to Vancouver's stacked team anyway.
> > > ---
> > >
> > [snip]
> >
> > Sorry, that should read: "They are bound to lose the cup to Vancouver's
> > stacked team anyway."
> >
> > --bgz
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

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