Obscure words and London Olympics

What is common among the Dead Rubber, Eggbeater, Fletching and Pheidippidean Pheat?

These are some of the most obscure words and phrases related to the ongoing London Olympics selected by the Global Language Monitor (GLM)

“The history of the Olympic Games spans over 2800 years, with the Games themselves persisting for over 1,000 years in the ancient world,” says Paul J J Payack, President of GLM.

“The Games have garnered a rich tapestry of linguistic innovation concerning the nature of the Games, the individual sports, and the rituals surrounding the quadrennial festival,” he said.

'Citius, Altius, Fortius’ (Olympic History); the Olympic motto in Latin for faster, higher, stronger; tops the list of words and phrases.

The other words and phrases in the top 5 are ‘Dead Rubber’ (Tennis, A match in a series where the outcome has already been decided by previous matches); ‘Eggbeater’ (Water Polo, Kicking one’s feet quickly in a back-and-forth motion tokeep the body above water); ‘Fletching’ (Archery, Feathers of a turkey, goose, or raptor and now synthetics used to stabilise an arrow) and ‘Flu-Flu Arrow’ (Archery, An arrow with extra ‘fletching’ to slow its flight).

The other words are ‘High Drag Projectile’ (Badminton); ’Impulsion’ (Equestrian); ‘Kotinos’ (Olympic History); ‘Marathon’; Nutmeg or Nuttie (Football); ‘Pankration’; ’Pheidippidean Pheat’ (According to legend, Pheidippides ran from the battlefield of Marathon to Athens, pronounced victory and then promptly died); ‘Repechage’; ‘The Snatch Deadlift’ (Weightlifting) and ‘Victor Ludorum’ (Olympic history, meaning champion of the Games in Latin).

GLM has been tracking language at the Olympics since the Athens Games in 2004.

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