sphairistike
English
[edit]
Etymology
[edit]Ancient Greek sphairistike, "skill in playing at ball".
Noun
[edit]sphairistike (uncountable)
- (sports, archaic) An early racquet sport that evolved into tennis.
- 1875, The Edinburgh review: or critical journal, A. Constable, page 72:
- The new appliances of the game sold under the rather too learned name of ‘sphairistikè’ have been lightened without, like their ancient representatives, being increased in size.
- 1941, Sir Arnold Henry Moore Lunn, Come what may: an autobiography, Little, Brown and company, page 7:
- He observed that a wholesaler who supplied my grandfather with goods continued to advertise the implements of a new game, called "Sphairistike."
- 1998, Heiner Gillmeister, Tennis: a cultural history, Continuum International Publishing Group, page 181:
- At that time, he had not given a thought to his new game, and, as a consequence, the pastures around Rhysnant Hall are not likely to have been the place where the Major would have pitched his sphairistikè nets.