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Armenian Folia Anglistika Linguistics 

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Sports Idioms and Their Interpretation 
in Different Dimensions 

Gevorg Barseghyan 
Yerevan State University 

Abstract 
The present paper aims at elucidating the ethnocultural relevance of sports 

terms and expressions which tend to penetrate into everyday English speech as 
well as political discourse. Obvious is the fact that the character and essence of 
cross-cultural interrelations depends, to a great extent on the participants’ ability 
to understand each other in order to reach an agreement. It is also well known 
that mutual understanding is in most cases defined by the ethnic culture of each 
side and the psychology of the ethnic group. Members of common culture not 
only share the same information but also the methods of coding, storing and 
retrieving the information. Rituals, traditions, customs are very closely 
connected with language and form part and parcel of the linguacultural 
“realia”. In the present article sports terms and expressions are viewed as 
realia and social behaviour patterns as each nation has its unique way of 
understanding and perceiving a game in its own way, thus attaching some 
symbolic significance to it understandable within the scope of the linguocultural 
traditions of the country it has originated in.  

Our observations show that the wide use of sports terms and expressions in 
non-sporting situations, particularly in political discourse and everyday speech 
is to a certain extent conditioned by their sociocultural origin and the new 
connotational meanings acquired in the course of the language development.  

Key words: sports terms and idioms, expression of one’s identity, non-
sporting situations, sociocultural nature of sports idioms, linguocultural realia, 
hidden codes, code breaker, popular consciousness, international 
communication. 

Introduction 
In recent years extensive research in Communicative Language Teaching 

served as theoretical and methodological basis for the emergence of several 



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approaches, the ethnographic approach (Hymes 1974); and the sociocultural one 
in particular (Saphonova 1991)  that aimed to co-teach language and culture 
(Vereschagin, Kostomarov 1990); the core of which is the dialectical 
connection between language and culture. Language is a means of expression of 
one’s identity. It is impossible to understand a foreign language unless you at 
least have some idea about the conditions the nation speaking the language lives 
in. In other words, real use of linguistic elements in speech and real speech 
productivity are conditioned by the knowledge of the social-cultural life of the 
people speaking the language. Rituals, traditions, customs are very closely 
connected with language, as they form  part and parcel of  linguocultural realia 
(Edward 1990); British sports idioms, for example, known to express 
everything that concerns mankind,  mediating the joy and misery of life, sorrow, 
and happiness, honor and shame, rising to greatness and falling into objection, 
in fact, indicate elements of British culture. 

 
Sports Idioms in Non-Sporting Situations 
In this paper an attempt is made to show that games and sports terms and 

expressions also belong here and constitute an important part of a nation’s 
linguoculture. The target of the research is the study of sports idioms, their 
origin, their occurrence in the English language, the new connotational 
meanings they acquire in the course of language development, and their usage 
in the non-sporting situations and dimensions. The interpretation of the material 
scrupulously selected and presented in the paper enables us to reveal the 
typically British sociocultural nature of sports idioms and their ability to be well 
fit in non-sporting situations and everyday speech. 

The purpose of this paper is also to go over one of the problems of 
ethnocultural studies, namely take into consideration sport and sports terms 
viewing them as realia and social behavior patterns closely linked to national 
character. The implicit significance of the question is elucidated through 
linguistic material. 

In fact, each nation has its own way of seeing and doing things, based on 
written rules, and these hidden differences often make cooperation difficult. 
Members of common culture not only share the same information, but also 
methods of coding, storing and retrieving the information. These methods vary 
from culture to culture. 



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In this paper we are concerned with the sports idioms which are used to 
appear in non-sporting situations. Thus  if we do not know the rules and the 
origin of a given game we would be unable to understand the meaning of the 
verbal manifestation of the principles of the game, and the expressive-
emotional-evaluative overtones they have acquired in different linguocultural 
contexts. We proceed from the fact that in the English language, and in the 
world of English reality, sports and, thus sports terms and expressions are part 
of the given cultural reality (Beard 1998). 

The popular expression that’s not cricket, for example, implies that someone 
has behaved badly. The term derives from the game of cricket. Cricket means 
fair and honorable behavior. When one is fair and honorable, one is cricket. You 
can say “You are cricket” to someone you respect, or “I’m cricket” about 
yourself. “I’m cricket” When you are cricket, you benefit yourself by avoiding 
your bad behaviours. On the other hand, you honor yourself. And that’s really 
cricket. 

Cricket is one of the ethnic values which is idiomatically used in other 
spheres of life, and its significance is ascribed to the universal concept of fair vs 
unfair. It is not cricket means it is not fair. We should hasten to add that the 
rules of this British game are very strict and fair. If an Englishman tells an 
Armenian “You are not cricket” the latter will not be able to understand it if he 
has no background knowledge about the English game of cricket. In order to 
understand what a foreigner wants to say by this or that phrase or even 
behaviour one should have some background information about the nation and 
its culture. Moreover, he must be familiar with certain British ethnocultural 
realias. The phrase it’s not cricket became inexorably linked to the lack of 
honesty, integrity, morality or patriotism. 

The goal of the paper (the study of sports idioms used in non-sporting 
dimensions), accounts for our interest in various researches on idiomatic 
expressions at large, the investigation and critical analysis of which disposes us 
to think that sports terms and expressions may well fit for non-sporting spheres 
and situations. Politics is one of those spheres. For example, to throw one’s hat 
in the ring which is now actively used in political campaigns, when the 
politician announces his determination of becoming a candidate, comes from 
the sport of boxing, as it was the custom for a fighter to throw his hat into the 
boxing ring to signal his readiness to fight. 



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Another interesting example in the domain of politics is shoo-in which is an 
American term meaning someone or something that seems sure to win. It 
originates from the sphere of football when before a big match, for example, 
supporters of each team are certain to argue about which team will win. 
Sometimes, though, one team appears much stronger than the other, and there 
seems to be no way it can lose. Everyone agrees that the stronger team which is 
the shoo-in will win. 

The term shoo-in comes from the word “shoo” that is a word hundreds of 
years old and is associated with the meaning “to urge a person or an animal to 
move in a desired direction.” Word experts say it was first used many years ago 
in horse racing, when dishonest riders agreed secretly to “throw the race,” to 
hold back their horses, so that one chosen horse would win the race. The chosen 
riders would lose the race. But they would win money from secret bets on the 
chosen horse. The public soon learned about this dishonesty in races. They 
began to call the winner of such a race a “shoo-in”. As years passed, the 
meaning changed and now “shoo-in” has nothing to do with cheating or illegal 
activity. It is now used to describe any athlete or competitor, certain to win. 
American runner Edwin Moses won more than a hundred races before the 
hurdles race in the 1984 Olympic games. Everyone said Moses was a shoo-in, 
that he was faster than any other competitor. They said he could not lose. And 
they were right. He won the gold medal. 

The popularity of the word shoo-in established itself in the sphere of politics 
in the presidential election campaign of 1984. The study of the public opinion 
during the campaign showed much more support for the Republican president 
Ronald Reagan than for his opponent the Democrat Walter Mondale. So, 
Ronald Reagan was a “shoo-in” or in other words a hot favourite sure to win. 

Another interesting idiom is fall guy just the opposite of shoo-in. This 
expression has made an easy jump from sport events to politics and everyday 
life. A fall guy is the person who is decided to be the loser or victim. 

The first fall guys were men who wrestled for money. At the end of the last 
century, wrestling was a very popular sport in the United States. Wrestling 
matches were held not only in big cities but at country fairs and travelling 
shows. 

As the sport became more popular, it gradually lost its sporting value. Many 
of the contests were “fixed,” and the wrestlers knew before the match which of 
them would be the winner. 



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The goal in wrestling is to hold your opponent’s shoulders down against the 
floor. This is called a fall. Sometimes one of the wrestlers would be paid before 
the match to “take a fall.” He agreed to be the loser for money i.e. the fall guy. 
Today, a fall guy in many different situations is somebody who is talked or 
tricked into taking the blame for someone else’s crime or wrong doing. There 
are fall guys in many situations, people who publicly take the blame when 
something goes wrong. 

Our observations show that not only sports terms and expressions have 
penetrated into our everyday speech, but also the names of sports champions. 
Thus, a case in point is the word combination the real McCoy. If a person tells 
you that something is “the real McCoy,” he intends to inform that it is the real 
thing, not a copy or substitute. The idiomatic word combination “the real 
McCoy” is based on the name of the famous boxer and a former world 
champion Charles “Kid” McCoy, who once had an unpleasant incident. 

McCoy was a peaceful man but one day when he was having a drink in a bar 
with a lady friend a man came up to them and without asking for permission 
began talking to the lady and offended her by pestering. McCoy had no other 
choice but mentioning he was Kid McCoy. However, this had no effect on the 
stranger who didn’t believe his words. He even attempted a joke saying he was 
George Washington in that case and continued pestering the lady. McCoy could 
stand this no longer and had to hit the stranger with his fist. Although it was a 
very light touch, the man fell to the ground unconscious. However soon he 
came to himself and called out, “That was the real McCoy!” Hence the 
idiomatic meaning of the word combination “the real McCoy.” 

The intensive use of  another common expression, game plan, outside the 
sports world, namely in economics, politics, social life, everyday speech among 
friends, etc., is meant to describe a detailed plan for dealing with changing 
situations. For example, the chairman of the US President’s Council of 
Economic Advisers said that he would help to decide the “Washington game 
plan for economic policy” which thoroughly presented all the steps the 
government would take while accomplishing its aims and ideals in its economic 
policy. 

The word combination game plan originates especially from football. Before 
any game, the coach will design a plan for his team to follow and in making the 
plan he needs to study the video and audio materials of the earlier games of the 
team. The study of those materials helps him to consider the strongest and 



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weakest points of both teams. While making his game plan, he takes all those 
points into consideration and then instructs his players how to react to every 
possible move the opponents may take. 

There is obviously nothing interesting and exciting in socks that people wear 
on their feet, but several interesting English expressions based on the word 
socks have so far been made. One such expression is pull up your socks 
meaning “try to do better, improve your performance.”  Imagine a basketball 
team near the end of an important game. The players are losing. They are so 
tired that even their socks look tired. The tops of their socks are falling down. 
The coach calls time out to talk to his team. “Take a breath”, he tells them. “Get 
organized. If you pull up your socks, you can win this game.” Thus, he is telling 
them they can win, if they start playing better. It is not a mere chance, then, that 
a magazine recently reported that a political leader told the members of his 
party they needed to “pull up their socks and get back in the game.” 

It should be mentioned that Americans’ love for sport has helped to make 
many sports expressions part of everyday American speech. For example, the 
expression full court press, which also originated from the sphere of sports, 
means the strongest possible effort in order to get something done. A newspaper 
reported recently that the administration was planning a full court press to get 
its programme through Congress. 

We have to agree that it is not easy to understand what it means just by 
looking at each of the components, for court, in this case, has nothing to do with 
trials or judges, and press does not mean newspapers. But a basketball player 
will be able to explain that it means a very forceful effort by one team to take 
control of the basketball game, for a basketball team scores by putting the ball 
through the basket at the opponent’s end of the playing area or court. The team 
then usually runs quickly back to its own end of the court to defend its basket. It 
tries to keep the other team back from scoring. However, in a full court press a 
team does not retreat after it scores. Instead, it attacks or pressures its opponents 
with a very aggressive defense. Thus, when someone decides to make a strong 
extra effort to get something done, that person is making a full court press. 

There are many baseball terms that are also used in everyday English. Here 
are several examples: 

to retrieve a ball that has been hit – it appears in British and American 
variants of English in the sense of  “deal with.” 



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to strike out – the baseball player has three strikes and is out for that time at 
bat, while the second meaning of the phrase is “to fail at doing something.” 

to keep pitching – the first meaning of this expression is to continue to throw 
the ball, but in everyday speech it is used as “to continue to work on 
something.” 

Popular familiarity with all kinds of sports shows that the most intensive use 
of sports idioms occurs in politics. Here are some additional examples: 

sailing close to the wind (to take a risk: comes from sailing sport) 
on the ropes (to be in a tough situation: a boxing term) 
to score an own goal (to be mistaken: especially taken from football) 
plain sailing (easy, without problems: comes from a sailing term) 
kick off (to start something: a football term) 
to be for the high jump (to be in a serious trouble: used in athletics) 
steer clear off (to keep away from: it’s an athletic term also used in running) 
learning the ropes (to find out how to do something: used especially in 

learning boxing rules) 
being thrown in at the deep end (to face a difficult situation without any 

preparation: is typical of a football game or boxing) 
to give a  free rein (to give someone freedom for action: used in horse 

racing) 
boxed into a corner (to limit one’s freedom to move or act: a boxing term) 
below the belt (that was not fair: used in boxing) 
to slow off the mark (be slow at starting something: used especially in car 

race) 
neck and neck (equal position: in horse racing or in a contest, to fight with 

competitors for advantage or lead) 
to move the goalposts (to change the rules to your own advantage: used in 

football or rugby) 
to take the wind out of sail (to make someone feel less confident: used in 

sailing) 
skating on thin ice (to do something risky or dangerous: from skating sport) 
to do an end run (to go around the end of the opponent’s defensive line: 

used especially in football and rugby) 
carry the ball (to be responsible for a project in a business deal: used in all 

playing disciplines) 



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to hold the line (to stay and not move: usually players try to stay in their 
position against the opponent’s offensive attack in almost all playing 
disciplines). 

The examples adduced above display the “hidden codes” of behavior in each 
culture, which can rarely be understood without a “code breaker” (Arens, 
Montague 1975); They reveal  a fundamental tone characteristic of the voice of 
people’s feelings and thoughts, help to capture the “soul” of a nation, as well as 
testify the capacity of sport to provide metaphoric interpretations of the 
objective reality into different spheres of activity, thus translating them into the 
popular consciousness of diverse cultures. Our observations allow us to 
conclude that idiomatic expressions originating from sports will continue to 
feature heavily in the English language for international communication. 

 
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1. Aghayan, E. (1976) Ardi hayereni bacatrakan bararan. Yerevan: Hayastan 

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2. Arens, W.; Montague, S. (1975) Professional Football: An American Symbol 

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3.  Beard, A. (1998) The Language of Sport. 1st Edition. N.Y.: Psychology Press. 
4. Edward, J. (1990) Understanding Cultural Differences. Yarmouth, ME: 

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5. (1962) Enciklopedicheskiy slovar’ po fizicheskoi cul’ture i sportu. M.: 

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6.  (1998) Football Dictionary. / Compiled and arranged by Th. Binder and M. 

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Metaphors. New York:  Greenwood Publishers.  



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13.Saphonova, V. (1991) Sotsiokulturniy podkhod k obucheniu inostrannomy 
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14.Tomakhin, G. (1999) Lingvostranovedcheskiy slovar’. M.: Rus.yaz.  
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