Discussion Forum—A Way with Words, a fun radio show and podcast about language

I was listening to your show today (Saturday 22nd) while driving, and was most interested in the question and your answers about the phrase, "on the ball."

You attributed the origin (circa early 20th Century) to baseball.

The phrase, to a New Zealander (of which I am one), is known to have origins much earlier than Baseball, for a NZ folk song entitled "On the Ball" has its origins in the late 19th Century.

It is an old, very old Rugby song, and can still be sung with gusto and memory at many a New Zealand reunion today.

That still does not mean the writer of the song coined the expression himself, but if he did not, then the phrase must have been in the common lexicon of Kiwi usage at the time.

Peter Atkins