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Bandy

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I am not going to bandy words with youi.e. to dispute about words. The reference is to a game called Bandy. The players have each a stick with a crook at the end to strike a wooden or other hard ball. The ball is bandied from side to side, each party trying to beat it home to the opposite goal. (Anglo-Saxon, bendan, to bend.)

“The bat was called a bandy from its being bent.”—Brand: Popular Antiquities (article “Golf,” p. 538).

 

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.

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Banat
Banbury
Banco
Bancus Regius
Bandana or Bandanna
Bandbox
Bandbox Plot (The)
Bande Noire
Bandit
Bands
Bandy
Bane
Bangorian Controversy
Bang-up, or Slap-bang
Banian or Banyan (A)
Banian Dàys [Ban-yan]
Bank
Bank of a River
Bankrupt
Bankside
Banks’s Horse