Ball

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A ball is a round object (usually spherical but sometimes ovoid)[1] with various uses. It is used
in ball games, where the play of the game follows the state of the ball as it is hit, kicked or thrown
by players. Balls can also be used for simpler activities, such as catch, marbles and juggling.
Balls made from hard-wearing materials are used in engineering applications to provide very low
friction bearings, known as ball bearings. Black-powder weapons use stone and metal balls
as projectiles.
Although many types of balls are today made from rubber, this form was unknown outside the
Americas until after the voyages of Columbus. The Spanish were the first Europeans to see
bouncing rubber balls (albeit solid and not inflated) which were employed most notably in
the Mesoamerican ballgame. Balls used in various sports in other parts of the world prior to
Columbus were made from other materials such as animal bladders or skins, stuffed with various
materials.
As balls are one of the most familiar spherical objects to humans, the word "ball" is used to refer
to, or to describe, anything spherical or near-spherical.

Contents
[hide]

 1Etymology
 2History
o 2.1Ancient Greeks
o 2.2Ancient Romans
o 2.3Modern ball games
 3Round balls
 4Prolate spheroid balls
 5See also
 6References

Etymology
The first known use of the word ball in English in the sense of a globular body that is played with
was in 1205 in Laȝamon's Brut, or Chronicle of Britain in the phrase, "Summe heo driuen balles
wide ȝeond Þa feldes." The word came from the Middle English bal (inflected as ball-e, -es, in
turn from Old Norse böllr (pronounced [bɔlːr]; compare Old Swedish baller, and Swedish boll)
from Proto-Germanic ballu-z, (whence probably Middle High German bal, ball-es, Middle
Dutch bal), a cognate with Old High German ballo, pallo, Middle High German balle from Proto-
Germanic *ballon (weak masculine), and Old High German ballâ, pallâ, Middle High
German balle, Proto-Germanic *ballôn (weak feminine). No Old English representative of any of
these is known. (The answering forms in Old English would have been beallu, -a, -e—
compare bealluc, ballock.) If ball- was native in Germanic, it may have been a cognate with the
Latin foll-is in sense of a "thing blown up or inflated." In the later Middle English spelling balle the
word coincided graphically with the French balle"ball" and "bale" which has hence been
erroneously assumed to be its source. French balle (but not boule) is assumed to be of Germanic
origin, itself, however. In Ancient Greek the word πάλλα (palla) for "ball" is attested[2] besides the
word "σφαίρα", sphere.[3]

History

Russian leather balls (Russian: мячи), 12th-13th century.

A ball, as the essential feature in many forms of gameplay requiring physical exertion, must date
from the very earliest times. A rolling object appeals not only to a human baby but to a kitten and
a puppy. Some form of game with a ball is found portrayed on Egyptian monuments, and is
played among aboriginal tribes at the present day. In Homer, Nausicaa was playing at ball with
her maidens when Odysseus first saw her in the land of the Phaeacians (Od. vi. 100). And Halios
and Laodamas performed before Alcinous and Odysseus with ball play, accompanied with
dancing (Od. viii. 370).
Ancient Greeks
Among the Greeks games with balls (σφαῖραι) were regarded as a useful subsidiary to the more
violent athletic exercises, as a means of keeping the body supple, and rendering it graceful, but
were generally left to boys and girls. Of regular rules for the playing of ball games, little trace
remains, if there were any such. The names in Greek for various forms, which have come down
to us in such works as the Ὀνομαστικόν of Julius Pollux, imply little or nothing of such; thus,
ἀπόρραξις (aporraxis) only means the putting of the ball on the ground with the open hand,
οὐρανία (ourania), the flinging of the ball in the air to be caught by two or more players; φαινίνδα
(phaininda) would seem to be a game of catch played by two or more, where feinting is used as
a test of quickness and skill. Pollux (i. x. 104) mentions a game called episkyros (ἐπίσκυρος),
which has often been looked on as the origin of football. It seems to have been played by two
sides, arranged in lines; how far there was any form of "goal" seems uncertain.[4]
Ancient Romans
Among the Romans, ball games were looked upon as an adjunct to the bath, and were
graduated to the age and health of the bathers, and usually a place (sphaeristerium) was set
apart for them in the baths (thermae). There appear to have been three types or sizes of ball,
the pila, or small ball, used in catching games, the paganica, a heavy ball stuffed with feathers,
and the follis, a leather ball filled with air, the largest of the three. This was struck from player to
player, who wore a kind of gauntlet on the arm. There was a game known as trigon, played by
three players standing in the form of a triangle, and played with the follis, and also one known
as harpastum, which seems to imply a "scrimmage" among several players for the ball. These
games are known to us through the Romans, though the names are Greek.[4]
Modern ball games
The various modern games played with a ball or balls and subject to rules are treated under their
various names, such as polo, cricket, football, etc.[4]

Round balls


Football from association football (soccer)

Bandy ball

Baseball

Basketball
 

Billiard balls

Bowling ball (and pin)

Cricket ball

Golf ball next to a hole

Lacrosse ball

Rinkball
 

Roller hockey ball

Rubber band ball

Squash ball

Table tennis balls

Tennis ball
 

Volleyball

Water polo ball

Prolate spheroid balls

Several sports use a ball in the shape of a prolate spheroid:

American football

Australian rules football

Canadian football


 Rugby union ball

See also
 Ball (mathematics)
 Buckminster Fullerene
 Football (ball)
 Kickball
 Marbles
 Penny floater
 Prisoner Ball
 Shuttlecock
 Super Ball

References
1. Jump up^ "Code of Federal Regulations: 1985-1999". U.S. General Services Administration,
National Archives and Records Service, Office of the Federal Register. 5 November
1999. Archived from the original on 7 November 2017. Retrieved 5 November 2017 – via Google
Books.
2. Jump up^ πάλλα Archived 2015-09-24 at the Wayback Machine., Henry George Liddell, Robert
Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, on Perseus
3. Jump up^ σφαίρα Archived 2017-03-20 at the Wayback Machine., Henry George Liddell, Robert
Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, on Perseus
4. ^ Jump up to:a b c Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Ball". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.).
Cambridge University Press.
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 Balls
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