four-minute man
- noun
- /fɔrˈmɪnɪt mæn/
:
hombre de cuatro minutos
- Roger Bannister became the first four-minute man when he completed a mile in under four minutes in 1954.
Examples
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Roger Bannister was the first person recognized as a four-minute man in 1954.
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Breaking the barrier to become a four-minute man is still a celebrated achievement in athletics.
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After years of training, he finally became a four-minute man at the national championships.
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Roger Bannister was the first four-minute man in history.
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The term four-minute man is used in athletics.
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Many athletes aspire to become a four-minute man as it represents a major milestone in distance running.
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Achieving the title of four-minute man is a prestigious honor in the world of athletics.
Surface Forms
Morphology
four-minute + man
The phrase is built from a clear numeric time measure plus 'man', so learners can infer it denotes a person associated with a four-minute performance. However, identifying that this specifically means someone who has run a mile in under four minutes depends on knowledge of the sporting milestone 'four-minute mile' and world knowledge, so the exact sense is not fully predictable for a B1 learner.
Etymology
Four-minute man comes from the famous running goal of finishing a mile in less than four minutes. Picture a clock showing four minutes — anyone who beat that time became a four-minute man, so it now means 'an athlete who has run a mile in less than four minutes'.
