Rugby

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˈɹʌɡbi/

Definitions

1. A contact sport played by two teams of fifteen players each who compete to advance an oval ball across a field and score points by grounding it in the opposing team's goal area or kicking it over the crossbar
2. A team sport involving two squads of players who aim to carry an oval ball to score by touching it down in the opponent's in-goal area or by kicking it between uprights for points
3. An athletic game featuring two teams that strive to move an oval ball down the field to achieve points by grounding it in the rival's goal zone or converting kicks over the posts

Etymology: The game takes its name from a school, and the school takes its name from a village whose own name may come from birds. Rugby School in Warwickshire, England, is where the modern game was developed in the 19th century, and the sport was named for the place where its rules took shape. The town of Rugby is recorded in the Domesday Book as Old English "Rocheberie", a name probably built from "rook", the crow-family bird, and "-by", a suffix meaning village or town. An alternative reconstruction proposes a dative form built from "hrōc" and "burh", meaning fort or stronghold, so the town's name may point to a rookery or to a fortified place. Rugby is also a common word in a second, unrelated sense. It was the name of a brand of rubber cement sold by the company Bostik, and the brand name spread until it became a generic word for any product of that kind. Dictionaries record it as a genericized trademark, the same route by which words such as "aspirin" and "escalator" lost their brand status.