Anybody know the origins of the name for the sport of boxing? My lame dictionary says ‘Origins obscure’.
For what it’s worth.
My Partridge says: “boxing, noun, 1711, the sport of fighting with the fists. The late date is accounted for by the fact that boxing died out as a sport in ancient Rome and was not reintroduced until the late 1600’s, and not popularized until the early 1700’s by the English athlete James Figg.”
I’m not sure how accurate my source is, and I read it a long time ago, but I seem to recall that back in the ages of tallships and stuff, they used to sit 2 people down on either ends of a box about four feet long. Then they would hit each other with their fists (no boxing gloves back then) until one of them falls off.
http://www.bartleby.com/61/13/B0431300.html has “box” meaning a slap or blow with hand or fist, from Middle English.
http://www.word-detective.com/020798.html suggests it may come from the Old Germanic “boki”
I couldn’t find anything else of interest…