handegg

See also: hand-egg

English

Alternative forms

• hand-egg

Etymology

From hand +‎ egg, by contrast to football meaning “soccer”, with the notion that the respective sports are “neither foot nor ball” due to the predominant use of the hands and the elongated form of the ball.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈhændɛɡ/

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛɡ

Noun

handegg (countable and uncountable, plural handeggs)

1. (slang, uncountable, humorous) Any of the sports that are called football but are played mainly with the hands and with a prolate spheroid ball; that is, American football and (less often) Canadian and Australian football.
   • 1909 November 9, letter to the editor, in The New York Times:

     Football is certainly a misnomer, for the game is played not with the feet but with the hands, and the ball is not a ball but an egg. I propose that the game be played with the feet and with a ball, or else that it be called “hand-egg”.

   • 2002 June 8, p/g, “Why does Arafat still draw breath?”, in alt.music.rush (Usenet):

     Yes, but would anyone show up for a game of handegg?

   • 2011 February 1, "FileServe FileSonic XXX" (username), "Innocent High - Jynx Maze XXX - 303 MB", worlds_sexiest_women:

     When I get there he was watching handegg. I’m not into that hand egg shit so we got into a heated argument on which was better.

   • 2011 February 8, "RVG" (username), "french pride", in fr.soc.politique:

     You're wrong, kids all around the world play football, it just takes a ball and a pair of sneakers, whereas handegg requires a full body armour.

2. (slang, countable, humorous) The ball used to play such a game.

Derived terms

• American handegg