gridiron

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for September 30, 2011 is: gridiron • \GRID-eye-ern\  • noun 1 : a grate for broiling food 2 : something consisting of or covered with a network 3 : a football field Examples: The former quarterback looked out at the field, recalling his many moments of glory on the gridiron. "In the spirit of the gridiron, Jets star quarterback Mark Sanchez offers his best portrayal of Jets 1960s legend Broadway Joe Namath, down to a flashy fur coat." -- From an article in The New York Post, August 22, 2011 Did you know? Modern gridirons are most likely to be covered by football players, but the original gridirons were more likely to be covered with meat or fish; they were metal gratings used for broiling food over an open fire. In Middle English, such a grating was called a "gredil," a root that gave modern English both "gridiron" and "griddle." How did "gridiron" become associated with football? That happened in the late 1800s, when a white grid pattern was added to football fields to help enforce new rules about how many yards a team had to gain to keep possession of the ball. From high up in the stands, the lines made the playing fields look like cooking gridirons. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.