American handegg
- noun
- /əˈmɛrɪkən ˈhændɛg/
- Slang
- Many Europeans jokingly refer to the sport as American handegg instead of football.
Examples
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I love watching American handegg every Sunday.
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Did you see the American handegg game last night?
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During the exchange program, students debated the merits of rugby and American handegg.
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She made a meme comparing soccer to American handegg online.
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Many sports fans prefer to call football American handegg because it involves primarily using hands.
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In the United States, American handegg is a popular sport that draws millions of viewers each season.
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During the Super Bowl, people gather to watch American handegg and enjoy snacks together.
Synonyms
13
2.8
A team sport where two teams try to carry or pass an oval ball into the other team's end zone
1
2.8
Team sport with two 11-player teams trying to move the ball into the other end zone by running or passing
Surface Forms
Morphology
American + handegg
The element 'handegg' clearly evokes 'hand' + 'egg', so a learner who knows those words and 'American' can plausibly infer an egg-shaped ball handled with the hands and thus guess a joking name for American football. However, it is a nonstandard, humorous coinage that requires cultural knowledge to map to the specific sport, so the meaning is partially derivable but not fully predictable for an average B1 learner.
Etymology
American handegg is a funny name that comes from a clear image: players mainly use their hands and the ball looks like an oval egg. People use this joking name to show that 'American football' is mostly played with the hands, not the feet.