We all know that in the footballing world, when someone scores 3 goals, they call it a Hat-trick and when two, a Brace.
I was wondering how these words are related to numbers 3 and 2? Is there any semantic relation? Is there any other word to describe for example 4 goals or 5 goals? Plus, I would love to have some information on their etymology!
Learn English – Meaning and etymology of “Hat-trick” and “Brace”
etymologymeaningsportsterminology
Related Solutions
I think the reason that you find predominantly two major forms for sneezing (ending in [i:] and [u:] may be because most sneezes sound more or less like one of those two.
I can vividly imagine a sneeze with either sound, so I find it very likely that the common onomatopoeias are reflecting that variation. Bear in mind that the Dutch and German examples that you quote are indeed incomplete, as the link form the comments shows:
In Dutch, Hatsjoe!, Hatsjie! In German, Hatschi!, Hatschu!
You mention a short [i] sound, but I think in most cases, the [i] sound is actually long a [i:]. The 18c spelling variations you quote from the OED, 18– achew, 18– ahchew, I would actually pronounce closer to an [i:] sound than the [u:] you mention.
In Dutch, the choice for ie ([i:]) or oe ([u:]) depends largely on the kind of sneeze... the [i:] will be more associated with a higher-pitched, possible restrained, nasal sound, whereas the [u:] would indicate a more unrestrained, lower-pitched, possible open-mouthed sneeze.
If someone describes a sneeze in Dutch as hatsjie, I can't help but thinking of a child or child-like sneeze, or actually a kitten (kittens never sneeze with [u:]!)
Describe a big man, and I expect a hatsjoe.
Especially the last part is — obviously — subjective, but I think the general reason for the different onomatopoeias is the actual difference in sneezes.
"The Conscience of the Court" is a short story originally published in The Saturday Evening Post on March 18, 1950. It is set in Jacksonville, Florida, at the trial of fictional character named Laura Lee Kimble, an uneducated black woman from Savannah, Georgia, now living with her (temporarily absent) employer in Jacksonville. Here is the relevant excerpt:
"Charged with felonious and aggravated assault. Mayhem. Premeditated attempted murder on the person of one Clement Beasley. Obscene and abusive language. Laura Lee Kimble, how do you plead?"
Laura Lee was so fascinated by the long-named things that they were accusing her of that she stood there tasting over the words. Lawdy me! she mused inside herself. Look like I done every crime excepting habeas corpus and stealing a mule.
Harold Wentworth, American Dialect Dictionary (1944) offers the following relevant information:
Law!, La!, Lawzy! Also Lawdy!, Law sakes!. Law me!, &c. Cf. land 2 [which reads "As or in exclam.: Land!, Land's sake! Landy! &c. 1834–1918 Land's sake(s), land sake(s)."] ... 1925 s[outh]w[estern] S[outh] C[arolina]–e[astern] G[eorgi]a Svannah R[iver] Negro. Everyday speech. 'Lawdy Jedus, Ah's so fraid.' ... 1938 Fl[orid]a–G[eorgi]a Suwannee R[iver] Lawsy! ...
As Wentworth's examples suggest, "Lawdy me!" is a dialect pronunciation of "Lordy me," which (according to the OED) is itself a contracted form of "Lord help me." As an exclamation, however, it isn't any more specific than "Oh me!" or "Oh my goodness!" or "My, my, my!" or "Good grief!" The expression can be used across a wide range of situations, in forms ranging from a cry of despair uttered in the midst of a dreadful crisis to a sort of quiet, sing-song musing.
A famous U.S. folk song called "Reuben's Train" (memorably performed here by the Holy Modal Rounders) uses the refrain "Oh me, Oh Lordy my!" after each piece of narrative action in the song:
Oh, Reuben had a train, and he put it on the track
And he run it to the Lord knows where
[Chorus] Oh me, oh Lordy my, run it to the Lord knows where
What did the hobo say to the bum? Got some cornbread save me some
I b'lieve, praise God, I'm comin' down
[Chorus] Oh me, oh Lordy my, I b'lieve praise God, I'm comin' down
[and so on...]
Another traditional song—recorded many years ago by Alan Lomax as Georgia penitentiary inmates sang it as a convict-crew work song—is titled simply "Oh Lawdy Me, Oh Lawdy My." Though many of the lines of that song begin with words such as "Lord, I'm goin' where I've never been before," it isn't a gospel song. In fact, it isn't particularly religious at all, except to the extent that formally calling the Lord to witness your troubles retains a theological dimension even when the usage is habitual and not prayerful.
In Hurston's short story, the crucial clue to how the character is using "Lawdy me" is in the description "she mused inside herself." The character isn't using the phase in the as if it were a fervent prayer or as an expression of fear and desperation, but in a thoughtful, unhurried way.
Best Answer
Hat trick
According to etymonline, ‘hat trick’ comes from:
Not really a very interesting etymology at all—not much enlightenment to be found, I fear, just a silly cricket tradition with a hat.
Brace
‘Brace’ is more interesting to me. First of all because I didn’t know scoring two goals in a match was called a brace, or anything at all for that matter; but also because it’s more of a ‘real’ etymology.
The word comes from ‘a brace’, which is an old term of venery. It means ‘a pair of [some animal, especially birds] caught in the hunt’. So if you go out looking for dinner, shoot two pheasants, and bring them home, you’ll have a brace of pheasants. It makes sense, then, that a word that means ‘a pair’—in particular, a pair of things that you have managed to obtain through skill—would be a good word to use for scoring two goals in a football match.
The word ‘brace’ itself is related to the verbs ‘to brace’ and ‘to embrace’: the original meaning (from Old French brace) is ‘[a pair of] arms’. ‘To brace’ originally meant ‘clasp/fasten tightly’, which is a plausible meaning for a verb directly derived from the word for an arm. ‘To embrace’ is simply to put something in [your] arms.
Old French brace is quite straightforwardly the regular outcome of Latin bracchia, the plural of the Latin neuter word bracchium ‘arm’, itself a loan from Greek βραχίων ‘arm’. The Greek word is interesting in itself, since it is simply a nominalised form of βραχίων, the comparative of βραχύς ‘short’ (found in English words as the prefix ‘brachy-’). Quite possibly, the word originally meant ‘upper arm’, being then called literally the ‘shorter arm’ (as opposed to the longer lower arm).
Βραχύς, in turn, is related to Latin brevis ‘short’, which (through Old French again) shows up in English as ‘brief’, as well as to some other, rather obscure words (there’s an old Gothic verb gamaurgjan that means ‘to shorten’).