Word of the Day

: November 4, 2018

gridiron

noun GRID-eye-ern

What It Means

1 : a grate for broiling food

2 : something consisting of or covered with a network

3 : a football field

gridiron in Context

"Despite his prowess on the gridiron, he received little attention from Division-I football programs." — Tom Layberger, Forbes, 14 Sept. 2018

"[Thomas] Jefferson wanted wide streets, lots of land reserved for public space, and a rectangular pattern of streets. L'Enfant insisted on radial avenues that intersect a gridiron of streets at odd angles. Many city planners believe that if Jefferson's plan had been adopted, there would be fewer traffic problems in Washington, D.C., today." — Ann Feetham, Cobblestone, 1 Sept. 2012

Did You Know?

Modern gridirons are covered in football players when they're in use, 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.