ballpark

Etymology

It is a compound from English ball + park,^[2][3][4] short for a baseball (or football) park.^[3] The verb is a conversion of the noun.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A baseball stadium or ground: the OED's first record is from an Indiana newspaper of 1871,^[2] and Merriam-Webster also dates the word to 1871.^[5] Older dictionaries had later dates: 1893 in Etymonline,^[3] 1897 in Merriam-Webster's Collegiate,^[6] 1899 in the OED of 1989^[7] and 1895–1900 in Dictionary.com, which marks it an Americanism.^[4]

Semantic evolution

From the 1940s the size of a ballpark became a measure.^[2][8] In US Air Force slang it was an area compared to a ballpark (1943), and in astronautics the area of ocean in which a returning capsule is expected to land.^[2][9] The Phrase Finder quotes in the same ballpark from a Windsor Star sports column of February 1942, with in the right ballpark also from the 1940s.^[8] The OED records the notional range within which comparisons or estimates can be made from 1945.^[2] Etymonline dates in the ballpark, "within an acceptable range of approximation", to 1954, in the jargon of atomic weapons scientists, and suggests it referred to the area within which a missile was expected to come down: a range broad but reasonably predictable.^[3] The ballpark figure, a rough estimate, was "Pentagon language" in a Des Moines Register article of 24 June 1957; a space agency answer with a "ball park figure" of 100 million dollars was printed in 1958, and ball park estimate in an Associated Press story of 1959.^(Popik|"Ballpark Figure (Ball Park Figure, Ball Park Estimate)", 20 November 2019) Popik links the phrase to the known dimensions of a ballpark, within which the ball usually stays.^(Popik|"Ballpark Figure (Ball Park Figure, Ball Park Estimate)", 20 November 2019) Dalzell also dates the slang sense "an approximate range" to 1957.^[10] The adjective "approximate" is recorded from 1960 in the OED and Merriam-Webster,^[2][5] 1967 in Etymonline and the Collegiate,^[3][6] and the verb "to estimate roughly" from 1957.^[2] By 1963 the noun was also used for a sphere of activity or expertise.^[2]

Timeline

• 1871 – a baseball stadium or ground.^[2][5] Etymonline dates it to 1893.^[3]
• 1942 – in the same ballpark, comparable.^[8]
• 1943 – US Air Force slang, an area the size of a ballpark; later the landing area of a space capsule.^[2]
• 1945 – a notional range within which estimates or comparisons can be made.^[2]
• 1954 – in the ballpark, within an acceptable range, among atomic scientists.^[3]
• 1957 – ballpark figure, a rough estimate, as Pentagon language.^(Popik|"Ballpark Figure (Ball Park Figure, Ball Park Estimate)", 20 November 2019) The verb, to estimate roughly, also dates from 1957.^[2]
• 1960 – adjective, approximate, of a figure or estimate.^[2][5] Etymonline dates it to 1967.^[3]
• 1963 – a sphere of activity, influence or expertise.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. (chiefly North American) A park or stadium where ball games, especially baseball, are played.^[5][11][12]
2. (informal) An approximate range, as of prices or views, within which comparison or estimates are possible: The builder's quote was nowhere near the ballpark.^[5][11][12]
3. in the ballpark: roughly correct; within a reasonable range.^[5][2][9]
4. A sphere of activity, influence or expertise.^[2]
5. (astronautics) The area within which a returning spacecraft or capsule is expected to come down.^[2][9]

Adjective

1. (informal) Approximate; roughly correct, of a figure or estimate: a ballpark figure of two million.^{[5][11][12][2]}

Verb

1. To estimate the approximate value or amount of something.^[2]

Related words

• ball
• park

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c Martin, Gary, The Phrase Finder: Meaning and Origin of Phrases, Sayings, Clichés and Quotes, https://www.phrases.org.uk
9. ^ a b c Encarta World English Dictionary (2009 ed.), Redmond: Microsoft
10. ^ Dalzell, Tom; Victor, Terry, eds. (2013), The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, 2nd ed., London: Routledge
11. ^ a b c Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt