Dibbly-Dobbly, Sledging, and Silly Mid-Off

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, my name is Lauren Daniel.

I’m calling from coastal North Carolina near a little town called Swansboro.

What’s on your mind, Lauren?

So I grew up listening to my mother and my grandmother use obscure terms all the time.

So one in particular I wanted to reach out to y’all about was the term sticky wicket.

My mother would always say that phrase.

My grandmother would say it.

And it was always used to kind of talk about a conundrum that one might be in, like if they were in a tough spot and not sure how to act.

They were in a sticky wicket.

Were they cricket fans?

No, not at all.

And that’s why I was so curious about it, because it just seems like an obscure term to me.

And so I was just wondering where it could have even come from.

But you knew enough about it to know that it was from cricket.

Well, I’ve put that together over the years with my father.

Gotcha.

But even, but I mean, I’ve never watched a game before, but I can imagine that maybe they get sticky.

Those wickets get sticky. I don’t know.

Those wickets do get sticky, or at least they used to.

It’s all the gummy bears they eat while they’re playing.

I know. Yeah, so this probably isn’t a concrete term.

Well, it’s really interesting.

It does come from the game of cricket.

And I’m trying to understand the game of cricket because it’s becoming more and more popular in this country.

I just read an article about the fact that it’s becoming really popular in North Texas, for example, because of all the South Asians who have settled there.

So I think that in your future may be a cricket match.

But let me tell you about this phrase.

It refers to a wicket.

Now, in cricket, a wicket is a set of three stumps with two sticks across the top.

And there’s one wicket at each end of a strip of grass called the pitch.

And the batter stands in front of the wicket and tries to prevent those sticks from getting knocked off by the other team’s bowler.

And the batter also tries to hit the ball out of reach of the defending team.

I’ve picked up this much.

And the term wicket has also extended to not just those little wooden structures that you’ll see, but the grassy space in between them.

And if that space is wet, then the ball is going to bounce really erratically.

It may skid across the grass or it may take out a chunk of turf.

And what happens is that the stretch between the wickets becomes a lot more unpredictable.

It becomes harder to navigate.

So it’s called a sticky wicket, and the phrase playing on a sticky wicket or batting on a sticky wicket means metaphorically that you’re in a difficult or awkward or unpredictable situation.

But Grant and I have a wonderful time with cricket terms because there are so many of them that haven’t found their way into the language necessarily, but are just really fun to say.

Dibbly-dobbly.

Yeah, that’s a good one.

Silly mid-off.

Or even have a term, Lauren, for the razzing that they do of each other.

Sledging is what they call it when they try to distract their opponents by teasing them or making fun of them or making them laugh.

It’s called sledging.

And there are lots of sledging remarks that are collected of some of the famous sledging that’s been done or just because it’s well known.

Just great players with great sledging.

Yeah, I like that better than trash talk.

Sledging.

Lauren, so I hope we’ve helped some.

Well, thank you all so much for your time.

I always enjoy listening to you.

I always learn so much.

So many things I didn’t know I didn’t know.

So thanks for all of your insight.

Well, Lauren, call us again sometime next time you hear something like that.

Yeah, take care.

You bet.

You bet.

Thanks, y’all.

Have a great day.

Okay.

You too.

Bye-bye.