Word for Wednesday: Badminton

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Our Word for Wednesday theme for June is sports. 

The Spellzone dictionary defines sport as ‘an active diversion requiring physical exertion and competition’. The word dates to the early-fifteenth century when it meant ‘pleasant pastime’. Sport was a shortening of the Anglo-French ‘disport’ meaning ‘activity that offers amusement or reaction’. 

Our first sports-themed word of the month is badminton. 

Badminton is a court-based game in which players use light long-handled rackets to volley a shuttlecock over a net. While people also play on indoor courts (so that the game is not affected by wind conditions), badminton is traditionally an outdoor game. The word dates to 1874 and takes its name from the Duke of Beaufort’s Gloucestershire estate ‘Badminton House’, where the game was first played in England in the mid-nineteenth century. Badminton was picked up by British officers stationed in the Indian town of Pune. 

'Badminton House' takes its name from the Old English 'Badimyncgtun' which means ‘estate of Baduhelm’. 




 


03 Jun 2020
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