Word of the Day

: September 5, 2024

gridiron

noun GRID-eye-ern

What It Means

A gridiron is a football field. The word gridiron is also used sometimes to refer to a grate for broiling food (as in “put the steaks on the gridiron”) or something consisting of or covered with a network (as in “a gridiron of streets and avenues”).

// The book recounts the quarterback’s most glorious moments on the gridiron.

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gridiron in Context

“After a decade-long wait for a new college football video game, College Football 25 made its early-access debut Monday afternoon. Once the clock struck 4 p.m. ET, fans, athletes, coaches and athletic administrators all rushed to their consoles to get their first reps in on the virtual gridiron.” — J. J. Post, ESPN.com, 16 July 2024

Did You Know?

Are you ready for some football... lingo? Excellent, and if your big game preparations involve firing up a griddle at a tailgate party, even better—American football shares linguistic ties with that form of cookery. One of the oldest senses of gridiron referred not to a football field but to a metal grate 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 early football fields were marked in a grid, not by the familiar parallel yard lines we know today. From high up in the stands, the lines made the playing fields look like cooking gridirons. You might remember this the next time your favorite player is hotdogging in the end zone.