Baseball, our country’s national pastime!  Not too many people are familiar with the entire lingo that comes along with the sport.  The main term in baseball that people are not familiar with is SOUTHPAW.   Everyone knows what a “ball” and a “strike” is, but they may not know the rules behind them, or where it may of originated from, but they have some knowledge of what the significance of the ball or strike is.  The term southpaw did not originate until baseball started in the mid 1800’s when baseball was presumed to be invented. “Baseball has no exact origin, but popular legend claims that Abner Doubleday (a Union officer in the United States Civil War), invented baseball in Cooperstown, New York, but there is not enough evidence to back this up.”  Although baseball from what it was then to what it has become now is a major difference, but a lot of the terminology and lingo has stayed the same over the many years, with new terms added as the years go by.

         Southpaw only has one context in which it is used, a left-handed pitcher, which has become known as the definition of the word.  The baseball world also considers any other left-handed players to be a southpaw too, but the majority refers to a southpaw as a left-handed pitcher.  There have been many different theories about how it originated but not one of them is wrong.  One theory is about the ways stadiums where built facing the south.  With the stadium facing the south the sun would set and would shine into the outfield; however the sun would not affect the eyes of a left handed pitcher due to the way he is facing. Even though the word southpaw originated in the game of baseball, it has been taken outside of the game and has kept the same meaning.  The word is mainly used in an everyday reference to a left-handed person.  In many sports when a term is developed it normally keeps that meaning and will only have the one meaning, which unless you are familiar with that sport you are not going to know that meaning.  Southpaw has been brought outside of baseball mainly because of baseball being the United States’ national pastime and having people of all ages playing the sport.  This is a word that is recognizable to numerous amounts of people whom played the sport as a child.  Many people recognize this word due to listening to the sport commentators while watching a baseball game.  Baseball is more than just a sport to Americans, it is something in which the bulk of us have grown up listening, playing and enjoying.

         The word southpaw is a compound word, which is comprised of the words south and paw.  South has always had the same meaning throughout time which is a cardinal point on a compass. The Oxford English Dictionary has a definition of south to be: “Towards, or in the direction of, that part of the earth or heavens, which is directly opposite to the north.”  The earliest use of the word was in 900 A.D., which it was stated in a few different languages.  The word south is not used in the English language until 1290A.D.”So longe huy wenden euene south, …”. The way that this part of the word became a baseball term is another story.  As stated earlier the origin of baseball was during the Civil War (theoretically, no one is sure of this).  The people in the Union states saw the southern states as awkward or evil because of their rebellion from the United States and their use of slave labor.  To add to this, left-handed people were not very common. Consequently these people were deemed awkward.  Now this brings the definition of “paw” into the midst, which in today’s dictionaries, it is slang for the hand.  The O.E.D. has a definition of paw, which is close to the meaning of southpaw that is being used. Paw: “contemptuously or jocularly applied to the hand, esp. when clumsy, or awkwardly used.”  The first time that this word was ever used in this term was in the early 1605 A.D. This word was used in Chapman’s “All Fooles Plays 1873 I.” Line 141, “I made no more adoe, but layd these pawes Close on his shoulders,” as stated in the Oxford English Dictionary.  The words are joined together to form southpaw, which refers to a left-handed pitcher in baseball.  This word is now used outside of baseball to refer to any left-handed person.  This word has been used ever since.

        “Predominantly 90 percent of the world is right-handed…” ; therefore, it has been seen that a person being left-handed is awkward.  Basically southpaw is a slang term developed to be another stereotype.  There have been many different words to mean left-handed, especially the word sinister, which also means evil, on left hand, or unlucky as Webster’s Dictionary states.  The Oxford English Dictionary has a definition of sinister that helps explain the meaning of southpaw a little more.   The definition in the O.E.D. is “situated on the left side of the body, lying on or towards the left hand, suggestive of evil or mischief.”  Basically the definition of the word in both dictionaries is referring to left as being the unlucky side.  The first use of the word sinister was on the left side.  This meaning was first used in the late 1400’s, but sinister did not achieve the other meaning of evil until the late 1700’s, early 1800’s.  There is also a French word for left, which is gauche. The word gauche is also commonly used to mean awkward.  The word gauche came around in the mid eighteenth century and was used to mean awkward or clumsy as stated in the O.E.D.  Southpaw is just another English word to mean left-handed, which there are quite a few of them (mainly slang terms).  This word just happened to originate through the sport baseball, and not many people understand the word in its entirety because of the origins of it.

         In the definition of southpaw and the words used to help define it, states that left-handed is being evil or unlucky; however, this not true.  There have been many successful people, such as Leonardo da Vinci, who was a world-renowned artist.  Benjamin Franklin, inventor of things that make our daily lives (even today) easier, and then Lewis Carroll, who was most known for being the author of the children’s classic Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.  These are just a few well known people throughout history that have made major contributions to the worlds societies.  Even though right-handed people exceed left-handed people, “lefties” are no more awkward than “righties”.  Since “righties” out number lefties there have been major improvements to make “lefties” more comfortable in the world today such as left handed notebooks and other things such as desks.  Since the majority of the world is right-handed there are not really any words or terms to describe them.  The left-handed population is not that high, and a few words and terms such as southpaw have been developed to describe left-handed people.

         Over the years many new words have come into existence and it normally will take the word or phrase years to achieve the status of being accepted by the majority of the population and added to the dictionary.  Southpaw has waited its turn inline for the recognition that it deserves.  Many people have used the word and many more people will continue to use the word.  Right now the word only has one meaning; eventually the definition of the word could change, or it could be just like every other word in the dictionary and have more than one meaning as time progresses.  The time has now come;  words and definitions have been recorded since we have been able to keep records.  There are millions of words in the English language now, and southpaw just adds to it.  This particular word has helped to expand our understanding of the English language.  As you can see this is not a word with many definitions; it only has one, which could grow into many more as time progresses.  A real definition has to start somewhere, and sometime.  So why not right here, and why not right now?  People use the word excessively and the definition of the word is a simplistic one.  Just remember the next time that you hear the word southpaw that it means a left-handed person, and does not have to be associated with baseball.  It can be used with any lefty.

         There is a new word developed everyday.  At first they happen to be slang, but as the years progress and the more the word is used the more common it becomes.  The word southpaw has been used for many years.  Mainly it is associated with baseball, as the majority of the people that use it know.  There are also people that use the word and don’t know its origins.  This has to do with others picking up on the lingo and using it in everyday life.

James Beiber