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#42
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Is there a bagage check in Sens?
Mark Brader:
If you go to a baseball game and it's canceled due to weather, you turn in your ticket stub for compensation in the form of admission to a future game. ...and is called a raincheck. Erick Barkhuis: ...which fits very well with the North-American expression "I don't know exactly, but my ballpark guess would be..." [referring to spectators, who couldn't really tell whether a runner was out or not, but at the same time boo the umpire because the call went against their own guess...] Ah, sorry, no. It means a guess that you don't expect is right, but you do know it won't be terribly wrong. It will be "in the right ballpark" (that's another common expression) -- a ballpark being a fairly large but still limited area. Ballpark guesses are made on numerical questions, not questions like whether a runner was out. If you ask me how far it is from here to Paris (bringing the thread back to European travel), and all I know is that it's more than 2,500 miles and less than 7,000, then I might say "I'll make a ballpark guess of 5,000 miles." -- Mark Brader, Toronto | Bad news disturbs his game; so does good; so | also does the absence of news. --Stephen Leacock My text in this article is in the public domain. |
#43
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Is there a bagage check in Sens?
Mark Brader:
Mark Brader: If you go to a baseball game and it's canceled due to weather, you turn in your ticket stub for compensation in the form of admission to a future game. ...and is called a raincheck. Erick Barkhuis: ...which fits very well with the North-American expression "I don't know exactly, but my ballpark guess would be..." [referring to spectators, who couldn't really tell whether a runner was out or not, but at the same time boo the umpire because the call went against their own guess...] Ah, sorry, no. It means a guess that you don't expect is right, but you do know it won't be terribly wrong. It will be "in the right ballpark" (that's another common expression) -- a ballpark being a fairly large but still limited area. Ballpark guesses are made on numerical questions, not questions like whether a runner was out. I've been googling for a while to see where the phrase "ballpark guess" comes from, but haven't found a reliable source, yet. So far, my friends in the States have always confirmed, that "ballpark guess" comes from the fact that everyone in a ballpark claims to know what's going on, but in fact merely guesses. This is quite different from your "a ballpark is a large but still limited space". It might well be that you're absolutely right (your explanation sounds plausible)....but on the other hand, how has the ballpark become symbol for such space and not any other limited space like a concert hall, a gym, a space shuttle or a transport container? -- Erick |
#44
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Is there a bagage check in Sens?
Erick Barkhuis:
It might well be that you're absolutely right (your explanation sounds plausible)....but on the other hand, how has the ballpark become symbol for such space and not any other limited space like a concert hall, a gym, a space shuttle or a transport container? I would guess it's simply because metaphors from baseball are so popular. As for the meaning being what I said, see these dictionary listings: http://www.bartleby.com/61/61/B0046100.html http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ballpark -- Mark Brader | "I always pass on good advice. It's the only thing Toronto | to do with it. It is never any use to oneself." | -- Lord Goring (Oscar Wilde: An Ideal Husband) |
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