Word of the Week Archive
by Kerry Maxwell, author of Brave New Words, with recordings by speechinaction
| a raised area of grass at the Wimbledon tennis club where spectators gather to watch British player Andy Murray on a giant television screen |
‘In almost every way, it seems, he is different from the uncontroversial, mild-mannered and very English player he is set to succeed as Wimbledon’s favourite son, Tim Henman. For Henman Hill, read the rather more aggressive-sounding Murray Mound.’
Financial Times 24th June 2006
‘Henman had to suffer last year after being knocked out in the second round, and even saw “Henman Hill” - the giant screen area where fans watch the action - renamed “Murray Mount” as teenager Andy Murray burst on to the scene.’
Sunday Mirror 25th June 2006
Its official name is Aorangi Park, but for many years it’s been called Henman Hill, periodically it was referred to as Rusedski Ridge, and in 2006 it's most definitely Murray Mound. This is the tongue-in-cheek description of a grassy bank at the Wimbledon tennis club, where fans without show court tickets traditionally gather around a giant TV screen to watch British tennis players desperately trying to win the men’s singles championship.
Murray Mound, also regularly referred to as Murray Mount, follows the tradition of naming this area based on the surname of the current top British player and an appropriate noun beginning with the same letter. It’s lucky for British fans that English has such a rich vocabulary of words referring to ‘a raised area of land’. Among the remaining possibilities are crag, knoll, peak or slope, which might tie in with other British surnames such as Croft, Knightley, Peters or Smith. Coinages such as Knightley Knoll might well be a long way off however, with Scottish player Andy Murray showing superb form at only 19 years of age, and potentially securing the use of Murray Mound for many years to come.
Andy Murray was born in 1987 near Stirling in Scotland. He won his first major tennis championship in Florida at the age of 12. Seven years on and having grown to over six feet in height, he jumped from a world ranking of 374th to 41st in less than a year, and became the British number one earlier in 2006.
Background
It’s 70 years since Wimbledon last had a British men’s singles champion. Fred Perry was the last British player to win the tournament, before the Second World War in 1936. As each year passes, the British public’s anticipation of a long-awaited champion grows more and more fervent, and ephemeral terms referring to the players, their fans and performances are coined along the way amid media speculation about whether ‘this will be the year’. Tim Henman, though as yet unsuccessful in fulfilling the fans’ dream of a British champion, has so far been at the pinnacle of media interest and word formation, spawning terms such as Henmania, and related derivative Henmaniac, Timbledon, Henman Hill and, in 2005,
Tim-ometer.
The words Henmania and Henmaniac have been a seasonal feature of English in recent years, sprinkled liberally in journalistic texts across the English-speaking world during Wimbledon fortnight. However, just as Tim is gradually making a graceful exit from the courts, the words that go with him are retiring too, with far less evidence of use in 2006. It looks like we’re sliding down Henman Hill, and climbing up Murray Mound.
You can test your tennis knowledge with a drag-and-drop activity in the MED Magazine archive, and the June 2006 edition includes an article about new words in sport.
| Search the Web | Google hits on 30th June 2006 |
| Murray Mound | 172 |
| Murray Mount | 219 |
| Henman Hill | 15,500 |
| Rusedski Ridge | 52 |
| Henmania | 22,100 |
| Henmaniac | 280 |
| Timbledon | 224 |
| Tim-ometer | 115 |
| Andy Murray | 579,000 |
| Murraymania | 685 |
| Murraymaniac | 11 |
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This article was first published on 26th June 2006.
Subject archive: sport