The OED supplies no clue to the origin of either gully or googly. It does not in fact mention etymology of the cricket sense of gully, which has led me to infer that it is from the ordinary meaning of gully, i.e. a channel between point and slip. However one responder to an earlier question suggests it is of Indian origin.
As regards googly, the OED says 'origin unknown'. It is interesting because of the derived verb 'to google', which nowadays has acquired an entirely different meaning.
a. A ball which breaks from the off, though bowled with apparent leg-break action.
1903 C. B. Fry in P. F. Warner How We recovered Ashes (1904) ii. 29 You must persuade that Bosanquet of yours to practise..those funny ‘googlies’ of his.
1904 P. F. Warner How we recovered Ashes 106 Bosanquet..can bowl as badly as anyone in the world, but, when he gets a length, those slow ‘googlies’, as the Australian papers call them, are apt to paralyse the greatest players.
1909 P. A. Vaile in Westm. Gaz. 17 Sept. 14/2 The ‘googly’ is merely the American service at lawn-tennis introduced into cricket.
1920 E. R. Wilson in P. F. Warner Cricket ii. 74 The ‘googly’ or ‘Bosie ball’ as it was afterwards christened in Australia.
1924 N. Cardus Days in Sun 48 Hirst cultivated the swerve and Bosanquet the ‘googly’.
1930 C. V. Grimmett Getting Wickets i. 22 It was at this time that I learned to bowl the ‘bosie’ or ‘googly’—an off-break with a leg-break action.
1954 J. H. Fingleton Ashes crown Year 46 Australians call it bosie after Bosanquet..Englishmen call it the google, or googly.
1955 K. R. Miller & R. S. Whitington Cricket Typhoon i. ii. 32 In..Yorkshire, the ‘Chinaman’ is regarded as the lefthand bowler's off-break… In Australia..the ‘Chinaman’ is..the left-hander's googly.
Can anyone supply any further clue to the origin of either word, please?
Best Answer
Picking up Jimmy's reference to Googly as Australian slang, there are a couple of possibilities. Firstly to establish the early Australian usage: 1904 P.F.Warner How We recovered Ashes 106 Bosanquet.. can bowl as badly as anyone in the world,but, when gets a length, those slow 'googlies', as the Australian papers call them, are apt to paralyse the greatest players.
Sidney J. Baker's 'The Australian Language' notes the usage of 'googly' but doesn't speculate on its origins. Baker does note the use of the word 'goog' for egg (still widely used in Australia) and speculates that this might be derived from the common root of 'gog' as in goosgog (a gooseberry). Baker appears to be referencing the shape of the berry (ovate) and the egg, but I haven't been able to trace the source of the word 'gog', except to note this reference from the OED: Goggle - to sway or roll about; move loosely and unsteadily, and associated quotes from c.1200, but more clearly from 1519: 'Maydens that cary geere vpon theyr heed putte a wrethe of haye betwene the vessell annd theyr heed to stay it from goglynge. Whether the old usage of goglynge is derived from an observation of the tendency for an ovate shaped object (possibly called a 'gog') to wobble, or whether ovate shaped objects got the name 'gog' from their tendenty to wobble in the sense of goglynge is a matter for someone with deeper resources (in Welsh I suspect) than I.
But whether 'googly' got it's name from the tendency of the ball to bounce as if it was mis-shaped like an egg (hence goog-ly), or directly from 'goggle' which (according to the OED) is related to the Welsh 'gogi' meaning to shake, or Gaelic 'gog' meaning a nodding or tossing of the head, it doesn't really matter - it seems that there's a strong link back through goggle to gogi or gog in Welsh/Gaelic. As for how the Welsh/Gaelic usage came to be common in Australia, it's interesting to note that Sidney Baker records 'goog' (an egg) as a expression used by prospectors and miners, and to note that there was a very strong presence of ex-Cornish tin miners, particularly in South Australia from the 1840's onwards.
It is also worth noting that the modern sense of 'goggle', that is for the eyes to 'bulge' or stare in amazement was not the original usage, according to the OED. Again the OED on 'goggle' - to turn the eyes to one side or other. The modern usage of goggle (and Google!) has, I think, in this case obscured the arguably strong link between googlie and goggle.