In this series I will write the origins of some of the most common expressions of phrases that we use in ours day to day life. The facts given here are extracts from a book by the same name that I got long time back from Reader's Digest. I wholeheartedly thank the author 'John Kahn' for this amazing book of trivia
BACK TO SQUARE ONE
In the early days of BBC radio, sports commentators adopted an experimental system for soccer broadcasts. The field was divided into eight theoretical squares - and listeners were shown these diagram in newspapers or in the Radio Times. The commentator would indicate the position of the ball and players by the square that they happened to be in at any one time : 'Hodgkin dribbles the ball diagonally across from square 4 to square 5...' and so on.
The system lasted at least until the Second World War, but was eventually found too cumbersome, and abandoned. But the expression survived. It must have been frequently heard in comments such as 'The full-back taps the ball safely back to square one, where Simpson the goalkeeper picks it up', and so became a widespread catchphrase. The idea of 'back to beginning' seems so clearly suggested by the words back to square one that the phrase quickly acquired this sense.
There is an alternative theory about the origin of back to square one - that it derives from board games such as Snakes and Ladders : one unlucky roll of the dice, or one miscalculation, and your counter might be sent all the way back to square one, from which starting point you will have to speed it on its way across teh board all over again.
BACK TO SQUARE ONE
In the early days of BBC radio, sports commentators adopted an experimental system for soccer broadcasts. The field was divided into eight theoretical squares - and listeners were shown these diagram in newspapers or in the Radio Times. The commentator would indicate the position of the ball and players by the square that they happened to be in at any one time : 'Hodgkin dribbles the ball diagonally across from square 4 to square 5...' and so on.
The system lasted at least until the Second World War, but was eventually found too cumbersome, and abandoned. But the expression survived. It must have been frequently heard in comments such as 'The full-back taps the ball safely back to square one, where Simpson the goalkeeper picks it up', and so became a widespread catchphrase. The idea of 'back to beginning' seems so clearly suggested by the words back to square one that the phrase quickly acquired this sense.
There is an alternative theory about the origin of back to square one - that it derives from board games such as Snakes and Ladders : one unlucky roll of the dice, or one miscalculation, and your counter might be sent all the way back to square one, from which starting point you will have to speed it on its way across teh board all over again.
0 comments:
Post a Comment