sphairistic

English

Etymology

From sphairistike.

Adjective

sphairistic (comparative more sphairistic, superlative most sphairistic)

1. (historical or rare) Of, like, or pertaining to tennis; tending to play tennis, especially lawn tennis, with crebrity.
   • 2007, Barbara Ann Kipfer, Word Nerd: More Than 17,000 Fascinating Facts about Words, Sourcebooks - The Pennsylvania State University Press, page 483

     If you are sphairistic, you are playing tennis.

   • 1987, Denis Joseph Grogan, Enquiries and the Reference Process - Grogan's Case Studies in Reference Work, Clive Bingley - The Michigan University Press, page 21

     Finally he turned to the huge volumes of the Oxford English Dictionary where he found that the word 'sphairistic', labelled 'rare', meant tennis playing.

   • 1977, Dannie Abse, More Words, British Broadcasting Corporation Publications, page 59

     Some rare words are learned formations, such as 'sphairistic' meaning 'lawn-tennis-playing'

   • 1975, Periodical Magazine Article Authors, The New Yorker - Volume 51 - Issues 20 to 27, F-R Publishing Corporation - The Indiana University Press, page 77

     I hope it will not be taken amiss if I say that, while we have no objection to people walking behind the bowler's arm when the bowler is Australian, we deprecate its sphairistic equivalent.

   • 1954, F.C. Westley, The Spectator - Volume 193, The Michigan University Press, page 88

     The World of June 14, 1882, was writing: 'Lawn-tennis has not to answer for many accidents, so that two in a week among the sphairistic ladies of Ireland seems alarming.' Croquet as a country-house pastime could not compete with the new [...]

   • 1973, Brown & Merry, Country Life, Volume 154, Country Life - Limited - The Michigan University Press, page 2024

     When, exactly a century, Major Wall Clopton Wingfield issued the early rules on the sphairistic.