[General] A brouhaha by the baseball players

Status
Not open for further replies.

Silverobama

Key Member
Joined
Aug 8, 2010
Member Type
Student or Learner
Native Language
Chinese
Home Country
China
Current Location
China
Hi,

What does the whole sentence mean? Particularly the bold part?


A brouhaha by the baseball players resulted in three black eyes.


Thanks a lot
 

probus

Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Jan 7, 2011
Member Type
Retired English Teacher
Native Language
English
Home Country
Canada
Current Location
Canada
You can find the word brouhaha in any standard dictionary. It means commotion, uproar etc.

In your sentence the baseball players were stirred up over something and gathered on the playing field in an angry crowd.

Three black eyes seems a pretty extreme result from a mere brouhaha. Such an agitation might better be described as a donnybrook.
 

SoothingDave

VIP Member
Joined
Apr 17, 2009
Member Type
Interested in Language
Native Language
American English
Home Country
United States
Current Location
United States
A bench-clearing brawl, it might have been.
 

BobK

Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Jul 29, 2006
Location
Spencers Wood, near Reading, UK
Member Type
Retired English Teacher
Native Language
English
Home Country
UK
Current Location
UK
That's a new one on me. The late lamented rugby commentator Bill Mclaren used to call it a strochmash (I'm not sure of the spelling* - the word comes from Scotland).

Irrelevant tangent: When a confrontation doesn't lead to an exchange of blows, commentators dismiss it as 'just handbags'.

b

PS* http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/stramash?view=uk
 
Last edited:

Coolfootluke

Member
Joined
Feb 10, 2011
Member Type
Other
Native Language
American English
Home Country
United States
Current Location
United States
I am not a teacher.

The writer made a mistake. The term in baseball is "rhubarb", not the somewhat similar "brouhaha", which does not mean "fistfight", anyway.

"By" is clumsy, too.
 

BobK

Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Jul 29, 2006
Location
Spencers Wood, near Reading, UK
Member Type
Retired English Teacher
Native Language
English
Home Country
UK
Current Location
UK
I am not a teacher.

The writer made a mistake. The term in baseball is "rhubarb", not the somewhat similar "brouhaha", which does not mean "fistfight", anyway.

...

:hi: I think your 'mistake' theory may be well-founded. But before making an over-hasty and definitive assertion it's as well to consider a dictionary definition such as this: brouhaha: meaning and definitions — Infoplease.com . If it is a mistake, I wonder what sort of editorial policy the dictionary exercises. ;-)

b
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top