| 释义 |
sphairistike Obs. exc. Hist.|sfɛəˈrɪstɪkɪ|
[ad. Gr. σϕαιριστική (τέχνη) (skill) in playing at ball, f. σϕαιριστικός: cf. prec. Cf. stické.]
A type of tennis first played in 1873 which was later developed into and renamed lawn-tennis.
1874G. D. Fitzgerald in Field 21 Mar. 270/2 Sir, I have lately seen a new game played which will be a great acquisition as an out-of-door amusement at country houses. The game is called Sphairistike, or Lawn Tennis. 1874F. Kilvert Diary 27 July (1969) III. 55 We began to play ‘sphairistike’ or lawn tennis. 1927Times 10 June 10/4 Badminton quickly got a certain popularity in England, and from it Major Wingfield invented sphairistike. The net of sphairistike was practically the badminton net, 5 ft. high at the sides, with the same, if a broader, red tape along the top. Ibid., The name ‘sphairistike’, however, was impossible (if only because people would pronounce it as a word of three syllables to rhyme with ‘pike’), and it was soon rechristened. 1965Punch 16 June 895/2 The British invented lawn tennis, though the original name for it, ‘sphairistike’, didn't catch on. Ibid. 896/3 Arthur Balfour..mildly suggested that a better name for ‘sphairistike’ would be ‘lawn tennis’! 1982‘J. Gash’ Firefly Gadroon v. 62 My eyes lit upon a genuine old Sphairistike racquet. |