2021-02-18 ศัพท์ น่าสับสน ชุด U – umpire & referee

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2021-02-18

ศัพท์ น่าสับสน ชุด U – umpire & referee

แนะนำการใช้ ตามที่ส่วนใหญ่ใช้ แต่ละท้องถิ่น

ความหมาย อาจผันแปร ตาม ตำแหน่ง/หน้าที่ ในประโยค

Dictionary.com

ออกเสียง umpire = ‘UHM-pahyuhr’

ออกเสียง referee = ‘ref-uh-REE’

Dictionary.com

VOCAB BUILDER

What does umpire mean?

An umpire is a kindof referee

who enforces the rules during certain sports,

such as baseball, softball, and cricket.

In higher levelsof baseball and softball,

there are often multiple umpires on the field.

They are primarily responsible for determining

whether base runners are “safe” or “out.”

The most importantone is the home plate umpire,

who determines whether each pitch is a “ball” or a “strike.”

Umpire is also sometimes used to

refer to someone who acts as an impartial judge

during some kind of conflict,

such as two friends having an argument,

as in Jane and Mike were losing their tempers with each other at the meeting so I had to step in and act as an umpire until they calmed down.

Less commonly, umpire can be used as a verb

meaning to performthe duties of an umpire,

as in I signed up to umpire my daughter’s softball games.

An informal short formof umpire is ump,

which can also be used as both a nounand a verb.

It’s especially used as an informal way to address an umpire,

as in Hey, ump, that was way out of the strike zone!

Example:

The umpire called him out, but I’m pretty sure he was safe.

Where does umpire come from?

The first records of the word umpire come from the 1300s.

It comes from the Old French nomper, meaning “arbiter”

or “one who is not equal,” from non-, “not,” and per, “peer” or“equal.”

Nomper was adopted into Middle English as noumpere

but eventually became umpere

—the first two letters were struck out

because people heard “a noumpere” as “an umpere.”

This is called metanalysis,

and the same thing happened in words like

apron (originally napron) and nickname (originally ekename).

Umpires are most commonly associated with baseball,

but other sports have umpires.

In professional American football,

the umpire is one of several officials

who each have different titles and responsibilities.

Tennis has chair umpires and line umpires.

In other sports, the person in this positionis called a referee or judge.

In all such cases,

the role of the umpire or referee

is to be an enforcerof the rules

who does not favor either player or team.

Being an umpire is often seen as a thankless job

since players and fans are known for arguing with their calls

(which, yes, are sometimes terrible).

Merriam-Webster Dictionary

History of Umpire

The word umpire was formed by metanalysis,

or the changing of the division of words

based upon how they sound together.

The original word in English was noumpere,

which was a borrowing of the French term nompere.

The -pere of nompere was the French word for “equal,”

a descendant of the Latin word par (“equal”)

that is the root of words like peer, pair, and, of course, par.

Noumpere became the form used in English for “one without equal”

or “peerless,” but frequent references to a noumpere ended up

becoming references to an oumpere,

which became the modern word umpire.

It’s ironic that the word for a person who literally calls

balls and strikes is called by a name created by a linguistic foul.

Merriam-Webster Dictionary

Umpire

It’s ironic that the word for a person who literally calls balls and strikes is called by a name created by a linguistic foul.

The original word in English was noumpere, which was a borrowing of the French term nompere.

The -pere of nompere was the French word for “equal,”

a descendant of the Latin word par (“equal”)

that is the root of words like peer, pair, and, of course,

par. Noumpere became the form used in English for “one without equal”

or “peerless,” but frequent references to “a noumpere”

ended up becoming references to “an oumpere,”

which became the modern word umpire.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language,

Word History:

Had it not been for the linguistic process

known as false splitting or juncture loss,

the angry, anguished cry heard at sports events, "Kill the ump,"

could have been "Kill the nump."

In the case of umpire we can almost see false splitting in action

by studying the Middle English Dictionary entry for noumpere,

the Middle English ancestor of our word.

Noumpere comes from Old French nonper, made up of non, "not," and per, "equal."

As an impartial arbiter of a dispute between two people,

the umpire is not equivalent to or a partisan of either of them.

In Middle English the earliest recorded form is noumper (about 1350);

the earliest form without an n is owmpere, recorded in a document dated 1440.

How the n was lost can be seen if we compare the sequence a noounpier in a text written in 1426-1427 with the sequence an Oumper from a text written probably around 1475.

In an Oumper, the n has become attached to the indefinite article, giving us an instead of a and, eventually, umpire instead of numpire.

The same sort of false splitting has altered the forms of other words as well.

Apron, for example, used to be napron, and adder used to be nadder.

The reverse process has also occurred in the history of English:

words that originally began with vowels acquired an n from a preceding indefinite article.

Nickname comes from an obsolete phrase an eke name,

"an additional name." Newt comes from an eute.

A variant of the Middle English word eute still survives as eft, "a newt."

Collins COBUILD English Usage

Umpire & referee

An umpire or referee is an official whose job is to

make sure that a game is played fairlyand that the rules are not broken.

1. 'umpire'

These games have an umpire or umpires:

badminton	baseball	cricket	table tennis	tennis
volleyball

2. 'referee'

These games have a referee:

basketball	Billiards	boxing	football	rugby football
snooker	wrestling

The official in charge of a hockey match

is sometimes called an umpire and sometimes a referee.

Dictionary of Problem Words and Expressions

Umpire & referee

Each of these terms is applied to a person

to whom anything is referred for a decisionor settlement

(referee in bankruptcy).

In sports, referee and umpire are

officials in chargedwith the regulation of a contest, ruling on plays, etc.

Although the terms have the same general meaning,

referee andumpire have different meaning in different sports;

for example,

we have a referee and an umpirein boxing and basketball,

an umpire in baseball,

and both a referee and an umpirein football.

If you are an athlete or a sportswriter, you know the difference.

If you are neither, consult a sports authority;

a dictionary will be of little help except as indicated here.