baseball

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈbeɪs.bɔːl/^[1]

Etymology

It is a compound, from English base + ball,^[2][3][4] with base in the sense of a goal or safe place.^[4][2] Base was used for the start or finish line of a race from the 1690s, and for the safe spot in games like tag from the 15th century.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The word is first found in A Little Pretty Pocket-Book, published in London in 1744,^[3] and in Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey (written about 1798–1803, the OED's first quotation about 1815),^[5][3] but these refer to a game like rounders, of which baseball is a more elaborate form.^[3][2] The modern American game of teams of nine is from 1845 in Etymonline and MWU,^[2][4] and 1850 in Barnhart.^[3]

Semantic evolution

A rounders-like game was played by New England colonists in the 18th century.^[3] The story that Abner Doubleday invented baseball at Cooperstown, New York, in 1839 is generally held to be a legend.^[3][2] The ball used in the game is called a baseball by 1885,^[2] and the use of base for the bags on the field is from 1868.^[2] Compounds such as baseball club and baseball player are from 1855.^[5]

Timeline

• 1744 – baseball, of a rounders-like game.^[3]
• c. 1815 – in Jane Austen.^[5]
• 1845 – the modern American game.^[2][4]
• 1855 – baseball club, baseball player.^[5]
• 1868 – base for the bags.^[2]
• 1885 – the ball used in the game.^[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A game played with a bat and ball by two teams of nine players, who score by running round four bases laid out in a diamond.
2. The ball used in this game.

Word family

• baseballer
• baseball cap
• baseball glove
• indoor baseball

Related words

• base
• ball
• rounders
• softball

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c d Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press