 |
 | Home | Contact Us | FAQ | Search & Site Map | Link to Us |
 | Sign In | Join | Other 45 Sites in Network |
| HomeDiscussion GroupsEnglish UsageBritish EnglishESL Teaching Learnglish.com Contact UsLink To UsSearch & Site Map |
Discussion Groups / English Usage / January 2007Slug-footed
Hello: Which of the multiple meanings of "slug" do you think is used in "slug-footed?" ------ [This is about American football] Out at the University, on the practice field, the toe of some long-legged, slug-footed, box-shouldered lad kept smacking the leather, over and over, and farther away the scrimmage surged and heaved to the sound of shouts and peremptory whistles. All the King's Men, by Robert Penn Warren, p. 512 ------ Thanks. Marius Hancu > Hello: > [quoted text clipped - 8 lines] > leather, over and over, and farther away the scrimmage surged and > heaved to the sound of shouts and peremptory whistles. Interesting. In any other context, I would have taken it to be a bit like "sluggish", but that can't possibly be the case here.  SignatureRob Bannister >> Hello: >> [quoted text clipped - 11 lines] > Interesting. In any other context, I would have taken it to be a bit > like "sluggish", but that can't possibly be the case here. By coincidence, my daughter sent me this link today: http://www.slugline.org/Slugging/About_slugging.asp Fran Marius Hancu filted: >Hello: > [quoted text clipped - 11 lines] >All the King's Men, by Robert Penn Warren, p. 512 >------ The one that likens the lad to a mollusc....r Signature"Keep your eye on the Bishop. I want to know when he makes his move", said the Inspector, obliquely. > Hello: > [quoted text clipped - 10 lines] > > All the King's Men, by Robert Penn Warren, p. 512 It's describing a punter so I think slug as in a heavy projectile. >>[This is about American football] >> [quoted text clipped - 6 lines] > > It's describing a punter so I think slug as in a heavy projectile. Sounds reasonable. Thank you all. Marius Hancu >>> [This is about American football] >>> [quoted text clipped - 9 lines] > > Sounds reasonable. I agree with the derivation from "slug" the projectile. The other terms describe the lad's appearance, so this one probably does too. Another possible connection would be the shape of an old-fashioned football boot: as I recall them, they had a thick, rounded leather toe, so that one might be held to resemble a bullet in shape. I wonder if there's a connection between the verb "to slug" and the slug as bullet. In any case, the word might also have been an attempt to evoke the impact of boot on ball. [...] > I wonder if there's a connection between the verb "to slug" and the > slug as bullet. In any case, the word might also have been an attempt > to evoke the impact of boot on ball. OED doesn't seem to think there's a bullet connection, relating the word to _slog_ and saying the origin is obscure. SignatureMike. -- Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com >[...] >> I wonder if there's a connection between the verb "to slug" and the [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] >OED doesn't seem to think there's a bullet connection, relating the word >to _slog_ and saying the origin is obscure. How disappointing. I had myself almost convinced that the bullet "slug" might be so called because of the similarity of its shape to that of a gastropod "slug". SignaturePeter Duncanson, UK (in alt.usage.english) >> [...] >>> I wonder if there's a connection between the verb "to slug" and [quoted text clipped - 9 lines] > called because of the similarity of its shape to that of a gastropod > "slug". That was lazy of me. Thanks to both for not commenting on that aspect of things. The affair appears to be complicated, and may include gastropod-like bullets, according to the Online Etymological Dictionary: slug (1) "shell-less land snail," 1704, originally "lazy person" (1408); related to sluggard. slug (2) "lead bit," 1622, perhaps a special use of slug (1) with reference to its shape. Meaning "token or counterfeit coin" first recorded 1881; meaning "strong drink" first recorded 1756, perhaps from slang fire a slug "take a drink," though it also may be related to Ir. slog "swallow." [Or to (3), as in "Take a hit offa this"?] slug (3) "a hard blow," 1830, dialectal, perhaps related to slaughter, slay, etc. The verb is recorded from 1862. Slugger first recorded 1877; slugfest is from 1916. The OED/OnlEtymD implication of a connection between "slog" and "slay" is intriguing. The second source agrees, relating "slog" to "slug"(3). Or could it be from German or Yiddish? Doesn't say. > >[...] > >> I wonder if there's a connection between the verb "to slug" and the [quoted text clipped - 9 lines] > called because of the similarity of its shape to that of a gastropod > "slug". I do think there's a convergence between the "metal casting" and "gastropod-shape" ideas. Originally, I think, in musketry only a spherical projectile is a "bullet", and only a long one is a "slug". Only army logic can explain why both are "ball". SignatureMike. -- Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com > > Hello: > > [quoted text clipped - 12 lines] > > It's describing a punter so I think slug as in a heavy projectile. Or maybe it refers to the lad's foot speed (being like that of the molluscan brand of slug, cf. <http://www.goslugs.com/>). That would explain why he's been relegated to punting (or place-kicking, or drop-kicking). SignatureJ. Which of the multiple meanings of "slug" do you think is used in "slug-footed?" ------ [This is about American football] Out at the University, on the practice field, the toe of some long-legged, slug-footed, box-shouldered lad kept smacking the leather, over and over, and farther away the scrimmage surged and heaved to the sound of shouts and peremptory whistles. All the King's Men, by Robert Penn Warren, p. 512 ------ My reaction is that it means having massive feet able to impart energy to the football. "Slug" is an old engineering term for mass. -- --------------------------------------------- Richard Maurer To reply, remove half Sunnyvale, California of a homonym of a synonym for also. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > Hello: > [quoted text clipped - 10 lines] > > All the King's Men, by Robert Penn Warren, p. 512 I suspect yet another misprint for slue-footed, cf. the song Sluefoot Sue. Of a footballer, it suggests his gait is uneven (as might be the case for those punters whose run is a slight curve before they kick the ball.) SignatureDon Phillipson Carlsbad Springs (Ottawa, Canada) >> Hello: >> [quoted text clipped - 16 lines] >punters whose run is a slight curve before they >kick the ball.) The longer this thread runs, the more outlandish the suggestions become. This is one sentence, one description, and one slightly off-beat term in a book. RPW wrote, in my opinion, a pretty good book. Not a classic, not even a near-classic. For the most part, his representations of dialog are pretty true to the type of people his characters represent. RPW is not saying the kicker is "slug-footed"; RPW's *character* saying the kicker is "slug-footed". The character came up with a word that described repetitive kicking of the ball...slugging - if you will - the ball with his foot. I don't have a problem with "slug-footed" any more than I have a problem with "box-shouldered" even though boxes have square corners and kickers don't. The sentence conjures up the image RPW was going for: the sights and sounds of a football practice. I hope Marius doesn't start posting Grantland Rice here and questioning: "Outlined against a blue-gray October sky, the Four Horsemen rode again. In dramatic lore they are known as famine, pestilence, destruction and death. These are only aliases. Their real names are: Stuhldreher, Miller, Crowley and Layden. They formed the crest of the South Bend cyclone before which another fighting Army team was swept over the precipice at the Polo Grounds this afternoon as 55,000 spectators peered down upon the bewildering panorama spread out upon the green plain below." The assemblage here will start to wonder if a football field is really a plain, if cyclones have crests, if field or plains have precipices, if there's a more accurate word than "peered" to describe watching a football game, and if a panorama can bewilder. Or Tim Cohanes' "Seven blocks of granite". SignatureTony Cooper Orlando, FL > > Hello: > > [quoted text clipped - 16 lines] > punters whose run is a slight curve before they > kick the ball.) Punters don't run in a slight curve they take 2-3 steps straight ahead and kick. Modern day place kickers move in a slight curve, but in the time the book was written they were all straight ahead kickers. It wasn't until the 60s that Garo Yepremian and the Gogolak brothers came along brothers that sidewinders started kicking. > Punters don't run in a slight curve they take 2-3 steps straight ahead and > kick. > Modern day place kickers move in a slight curve, but in the time the book > was written they were all straight ahead kickers. > It wasn't until the 60s that Garo Yepremian and the Gogolak brothers came > along brothers that sidewinders started kicking. Old movie film suggests British soccer players (e.g. goalkeepers) have been punting in this style for more than 50 years. SignatureDon Phillipson Carlsbad Springs (Ottawa, Canada) >> Punters don't run in a slight curve they take 2-3 steps straight ahead >and [quoted text clipped - 7 lines] >goalkeepers) have been punting in this style for more >than 50 years. Ray's comment is correct, but it would have been clearer if he had written "US football punters...". The book is about an American football practice session, so the punter would punt in the American style. His comment about Yepremian and the Gogolak brothers is also correct, but would also benefit from an inclusion of "American football". We Americans tend to forget that "football" refers to two different sports in an international forum. SignatureTony Cooper Orlando, FL Tony Cooper wrote, in <b6shq25b5p0jjqpbjfuskj9qe5rqunasdo@4ax.com> on Sat, 13 Jan 2007 09:56:18 -0500: > >> Punters don't run in a slight curve they take 2-3 steps straight ahead > >and [quoted text clipped - 18 lines] > We Americans tend to forget that "football" refers to two different > sports in an international forum. Plus two, or maybe one and a half, more - Gaelic and its offshoot Australian Rules. SignatureNick Spalding > Tony Cooper wrote, in [...] > > We Americans tend to forget that "football" refers to two different > > sports in an international forum. > > Plus two, or maybe one and a half, more - Gaelic and its offshoot > Australian Rules. Last time I tried, I think I counted eight. And Aussie Rules isn't an offshoot of Gaelic football. The Gaelic game, on the other hand, seems to be an offshoot of everything. SignatureMike. -- Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com > >> Punters don't run in a slight curve they take 2-3 steps straight ahead > >and [quoted text clipped - 18 lines] > We Americans tend to forget that "football" refers to two different > sports in an international forum. As the thread was about American footbll I assumed all in it were aware of that. > We Americans tend to forget that "football" refers to two different > sports in an international forum. > > Only two? I'd have thought 5 or 6. SignatureRob Bannister > We Americans tend to forget that "football" refers to two different > sports in an international forum. Well, there's football, and then there's football. SignatureRoland Hutchinson Will play viola da gamba for food. NB mail to my.spamtrap [at] verizon.net is heavily filtered to remove spam. If your message looks like spam I may not see it. >> Punters don't run in a slight curve they take 2-3 steps >> straight ahead [quoted text clipped - 8 lines] > goalkeepers) have been punting in this style for more > than 50 years. And when it came into use in American football place kicking it was sometimes called "soccer style" kicking. Once it became the norm, that description disappeared (unless one is, say, comparing the old versus new styles). SignatureBlinky Killfiling all posts from Google Groups Details: http://blinkynet.net/comp/uip5.html |
Reply to this Message |
 Sign In
 Join
 My Latest Posts My Monitored Threads My Blog My Photo Gallery My Profile My Homepage Start New Thread Enable EMail Alerts Rate this Thread
|
©2012 Advenet LLC Privacy Policy - Terms of Use
This website includes both content owned or controlled by Advenet as well as content owned or controlled by third parties.