Posts Tagged: sport

  • AI generated illustration showing some key words of the Tour de France

    How to talk the language of the Tour de France

    I love the Tour de France. It combines beautiful landscapes with thrilling sports action. There is colour, drama, controversy, charismatic sportsmen, crashes, tactics, speed and endurance. The first Tour de France was held in 1903 and the development of the race defined endurance cycling. The gruelling rides over the mountain passes had never been contemplated […]

  • Ancient Proto-Indo-Europeans indulging in snow sports (a snowball fight)

    Snow sports at the Olympics

    As the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics progresses with the excitement of the flying ski jumpers and downhill skiers we should celebrate the word at the centre of the whole celebration. We often refer to winter sports as snow sports. Snow is a very old word and its origins take us back to our most ancient […]

  • The difference between drivel and dribble

    The drivel is in the detail

    Today someone accused me of writing dribble. I was horrified, if you are going to criticise me you at least need to be literate—surely you mean drivel? But to be fair, the words are often confused by the hoi polloi, and, to be honest, by this driveller. Dribble and drivel sound similar but have quite […]

  • AI generated illustation of a rugby jersey, AFL guernsey, and rugby league jersey

    Guernsey versus jersey

    With the British and Irish Lions about to play their first match against the Wallabies tomorrow night in Brisbane (19 July 2025), I thought I would finally investigate a question that I have had in my head for years—why do we call rugby shirts guernseys and jerseys. I was surprised to find that the tops […]

  • AI generated images of rugby players

    Being on the right side

    You may know that we love rugby and words at Madrigal Communications. I heard an amusing word story yesterday, which has a particular relevance to the Rugby World Cup (RWC23). Rugby fields can be places where impolite language is sometimes heard. Sledging is very common with things said to unsettle your opponent. However, rugby has […]

  • An infographic showing some rugby words to know for the Rugby World Cup.

    Rugby words to know for RWC

    The men’s Rugby World Cup 2027 is rugby union’s pinnacle event. It is contested every four years by the world’s best nations. It will be held from 1 October-13 November, 2027. So of you may want to know the meanings of rugby words used in our game. Australia will welcome 24 teams to a “nationwide […]

  • ast week (5 April 2018) saw the passing of Eric Bristow, the five times World Darts Champion known as the Crafty Cockney. Our word of the week is oche to remember him.

    Farewell from the oche Eric Bristow

    Last week (5 April 2018) saw the passing of Eric Bristow, the five times World Darts Champion known as the Crafty Cockney. He is no longer at the oche. As one sports commentator cleverly wrote, Bristow died at the age of treble twenty, sixty being the highest achievable score with one dart. Reading of Bristow’s […]

  • Hubris in Greek mythology was when man became so arrogant that they thought they were the equal of the gods. Nemesis would punish them. So it is with Australian cricket!

    The meaning of hubris in Australian cricket

    The word of the week is hubris. It has been thrown around in the media to describe the attitude of the Australian cricket team leading up to this week’s controversial ball-tampering incident. Otherwise known as #cricketcrisis, #tapegate or #sandpapergate. I have always struggled to understand exactly what hubris means but with a bit of reading […]

  • Jockstrap ad.

    Bicycling “mamils” and fossils

    I was listening to talkback radio recently. The topic was the New Zealand café owner who has recently banned middle-aged male cyclists from his café because he was concerned that his patrons found the wearing of bike shorts offensive. While nearly everyone recognised that the issue was not an important one, it did generate quite a discussion […]

  • Illustration of a referee holding up a yellow card to an All Blacks player with word caption SCHADENFREUDE in the background

    Understanding schadenfreude

    When you respond to other people’s emotions there are four very distinct ways of doing so:

    Sympathy is when you are unhappy at the unhappiness of others;

    Joy is when you are happy at the happiness of others;

    Envy is when you are unhappy at the happiness of others;

    And schadenfreude is when you are happy at the unhappiness of others.

  • A rook dressed as a rugby player running with the ball like William Webb Ellis.

    How did rugby get its name?

    The town of Rugby got its name from the Anglo-Saxon Hrōca burh (or later Norman French, Rocheberie) which meant Rook Fort. A rook is a bird closely related to the crow. Later the burh part, for fort, was changed to -by, meaning village, to become Rugby. And that is how the game got its name.

  • The drongo was originally a bird

    Drongo was not a flyer

    It is Australia Day this week so I have chosen a most Australian word as the word of the week. If you get called a drongo it is likely you have done something rather unintelligent in front of your mates. Drongo is a uniquely Australian, mild form of insult, defining a person’s wit as being […]