Re: left and right
| From: | Lars Finsen <lars.finsen@...> |
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| Date: | Friday, April 4, 2008, 17:47 |
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Den 4. apr. 2008 kl. 14.16 skreiv Mark J. Reed:
> "Southpaw" has much wider use than just boxing; it's a completely
> general (if slangy) synonym for "left-handed person", and which
> probably caught on because standard English has no simple word for the
> person as opposed to the trait.
>
> Its etymology is in no wise mysterious or Madagascaran, though. It
> comes from baseball, where the diamond is traditionally positioned
> with home plate to the west.
Hm, according to Wikipedia it's first mentioned in the OED 1848,
three years after the first organised baseball game, so maybe it has
a different origin after all.
LEF
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