![]() Of regular rules for the playing of ball games, little trace remains, if there were any such. Ancient GreeksĪmong the ancient Greeks, games with balls (σφαῖραι) were regarded as a useful subsidiary to the more violent athletic exercises, as a means of keeping the body supple, and rendering it graceful, but were generally left to boys and girls. The most ancient balls in Eurasia have been discovered in Karasahr, China and are 3.000 years old. And Halios and Laodamas performed before Alcinous and Odysseus with ball play, accompanied with dancing (Od. In Homer, Nausicaa was playing at ball with her maidens when Odysseus first saw her in the land of the Phaeacians (Od. Some form of game with a ball is found portrayed on Egyptian monuments, and is played among aboriginal tribes at the present day. A rolling object appeals not only to a human baby, but to a kitten and a puppy. Russian leather balls ( Russian: мячи), 12th-13th century.Ī ball, as the essential feature in many forms of gameplay requiring physical exertion, must date from the very earliest times. In Ancient Greek the word πάλλα ( palla) for "ball" is attested besides the word σφαίρα ( sfaíra), sphere. French balle (but not boule) is assumed to be of Germanic origin, itself, however. (The answering forms in Old English would have been beallu, -a, -e-compare bealluc, ballock.) If ball- was native in Germanic, it may have been a cognate with the Latin foll-is in sense of a "thing blown up or inflated." In the later Middle English spelling balle the word coincided graphically with the French balle "ball" and "bale" which has hence been erroneously assumed to be its source. No Old English representative of any of these is known. The first known use of the word ball in English in the sense of a globular body that is played with was in 1205 in Laȝamon's Brut, or Chronicle of Britain in the phrase, " Summe heo driuen balles wide ȝeond Þa feldes." The word came from the Middle English bal (inflected as ball-e, -es, in turn from Old Norse böllr (pronounced compare Old Swedish baller, and Swedish boll) from Proto-Germanic ballu-z (whence probably Middle High German bal, ball-es, Middle Dutch bal), a cognate with Old High German ballo, pallo, Middle High German balle from Proto-Germanic *ballon (weak masculine), and Old High German ballâ, pallâ, Middle High German balle, Proto-Germanic *ballôn (weak feminine). "Ball" is used metaphorically sometimes to denote something spherical or spheroid, e.g., armadillos and human beings curl up into a ball, making a fist into a ball. Balls used in various sports in other parts of the world prior to Columbus were made from other materials such as animal bladders or skins, stuffed with various materials.Īs balls are one of the most familiar spherical objects to humans, the word "ball" may refer to or describe spherical or near-spherical objects. The Spanish were the first Europeans to see the bouncing rubber balls (although solid and not inflated) which were employed most notably in the Mesoamerican ballgame. ![]() Black-powder weapons use stone and metal balls as projectiles.Īlthough many types of balls are today made from rubber, this form was unknown outside the Americas until after the voyages of Columbus. Balls made from hard-wearing materials are used in engineering applications to provide very low friction bearings, known as ball bearings. Balls can also be used for simpler activities, such as catch or juggling. It is used in ball games, where the play of the game follows the state of the ball as it is hit, kicked or thrown by players. A ball is a round object (usually spherical, but can sometimes be ovoid) with several uses.
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