Recently I have seen a verb quite a lot that I had never seen before: To showboat. Here's an example I've just seen: Victor Hanescu stops the point to go to HawkEye - but Fed's forehand has clipped the back edge of the line. The Romanian smiles - just about - and then show-boats with a slam-dunk smash as he goes on to hold.
Has this expression been around for a long time? Has it recently become popular for some reason? Or have I just led a sheltered life?
jeremyintheczechrep
1
zashibis
Or have I just led a sheltered life?
Perhaps you just don't read the sports page much? (Or, at any rate, the American sports pages, since I have no idea how much currency the term has in the UK or elsewhere.)
Merriam-Webster's dates showboat as a verb from 1951, and a quick check of the New York Times archive shows that they've described players as "showboating" since the mid-50s.
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