# Are You "Balling" Right Now? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 26, 2003, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-balling-right-now/164314 "2003-03-26T16:40:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![CuriousCanuck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d2c977/32.png) [@CuriousCanuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CuriousCanuck)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2003, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-balling-right-now/164314/21 "2003-03-26T19:06:11Z")
I suppose I should also state that the word “gramamr” in my last post was not meant to be humourous, but was rather a typo. The word “grammar” was what I actually meant. I am sorry if I made you erupt into fits of unintended laughter. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2003, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-balling-right-now/164314/22 "2003-03-26T19:16:25Z")
Well, you outed _yourself_ . . . I’m glad to hear it was an unintended typo! I agree—I didn’t bust into that thread with any inappropriate cracks, either. I’d have had to Pit _myself_ if I’d done _that!_ ---
**Author:** ![CuriousCanuck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d2c977/32.png) [@CuriousCanuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CuriousCanuck)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2003, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-balling-right-now/164314/23 "2003-03-26T19:23:20Z")
No Pit thread needed 🙂 Let’s save em for those more deserving… ---
**Author:** ![porcupine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ac91a4/32.png) [@porcupine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/porcupine)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2003, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-balling-right-now/164314/24 "2003-03-26T20:36:28Z")
I noticed it too, and immediately read the post in an Andy Sipowicz NYPD Blue voice. ---
**Author:** ![zut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zut/32/2875_2.png) [@zut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zut)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2003, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-balling-right-now/164314/25 "2003-03-26T20:43:06Z")
I don’t mean to trivialize your sympathies at all, **CuriousCanuck** , but I have to admit that I smiled a little when I saw that typo. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2003, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-balling-right-now/164314/26 "2003-03-26T20:54:51Z")
[_whew_] I didn’t want, of course, to intrude on the horror of your thread, which—till I saw that one post—nearly had me “balling” as well . . . . . . Now, as for the other guy in that other thread, who “nearly balled his eyes out . . .” ---
**Author:** ![UES\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/76d3ee/32.png) [@UES\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UES_Guy)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2003, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-balling-right-now/164314/27 "2003-03-26T21:35:41Z")
Heh heh…it took me a long time to realize that Led Zeppelin wasn’t singing “I got a woman, wanna bawl all day…” Ah, so young, so naive. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2003, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-balling-right-now/164314/28 "2003-03-26T21:58:57Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by JuanitaTech \* > To ball is also slang for going very, very fast esp. while driving. Ex: > > I _had_ to be doing every bit of eighty when that car balled past me. > > …at least I think it is. You may be thinking of ‘booking’ as in, “I was really booking in my Corvette, but the Maserati passed me like I was standing still.” ‘Balling’ as a synonym for fucking was very much a late 60s - early 70s thing. But since the implication is obvious, and term hasn’t been overwritten with more recent meanings, it’s still retained its meaning despite the lack of use. ---
**Author:** ![Shade](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2bfe46/32.png) [@Shade](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shade)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2003, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-balling-right-now/164314/29 "2003-03-26T23:17:08Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by RickJay \* > \*\*I should read the thread more closely, I guess. So now I nominate “Ball” as slang for “looking like a dork posting something that someone else already posted.” > > Hence, “RickJay balled up pretty bad in that thread.” \*\* Not sure if I’m being whooshed… is ‘ballsed up’ meaning exactly that in common usage, or just here? ---
**Author:** ![mouthbreather](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a698b9/32.png) [@mouthbreather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mouthbreather)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2003, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-balling-right-now/164314/30 "2003-03-26T23:20:45Z")
OK, now that Zut and Cannuck have both made nicenice…can I get a link? ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2003, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-balling-right-now/164314/31 "2003-03-26T23:31:05Z")
No, no links, please, **zut** ’s thread is too sad for this to be attached to it, which is why I didn’t name names. ---
**Author:** ![LouisB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dfb087/32.png) [@LouisB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LouisB)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2003, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-balling-right-now/164314/32 "2003-03-27T00:16:05Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Eve \* > \*\*[_whew_] > > I didn’t want, of course, to intrude on the horror of your thread, which—till I saw that one post—nearly had me “balling” as well . . . > > . . . Now, as for the other guy in that other thread, who “nearly balled his eyes out . . .” \*\* You said something about wanting to have such a look or learn to have it—something along those lines. I tried to reply to the effect that I would bet that you do have that look and wouldn’t have to learn it, but the dern board timed out on me. Anyway, Jack Kerouak used “balling” in the sexual sense in “On the Road” back in the mid to late 1950s, so it pre-dates the hippie era. I don’t think it was in really common use until the 60s, though. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-balling-right-now/164314.md?page=1)