The Oxford English Dictionary has added 15 football-related terms to its quarterly update ahead of the World Cup next month, with Sir Alex Ferguson’s infamous phrase ‘squeaky bum time’ among the newly recognized terms.
The former Manchester United manager first uttered the phrase in 2003 at a press conference when discussing Arsenal’s end of season, suggesting the Gunners would face plenty of pressure situations at the end of their campaign that they would face.
The WD (opens in a new tab) The description defines squeaky butt time as follows: “A particularly tense period of time, especially that leading up to the climax of a competition or event.”
Explaining its decision to add the 15 football terms, the OED said: “There is a world Cup kicking off in November, and while the OED already covered a slew of footballing terms, from ‘catenaccio’ to ‘nutmeg’ to ‘water carrier’, this selection of fifteen additions fills in some gaps in our training.
“There are new entries resulting from our Monitor Lexicography program, where we examine databases, corpora, social media and even unsuccessful searches on oed.com, to analyze the language of the moment and ensure that we provide to give our readers what they need.. And we also have a football themed bundle, to help everyone master the language of football needed before the World Cup later this year.
A phrase coined by Ferguson’s managerial counterpart Jose Mourinho also makes the list, with ‘park the bus’ included in the latest additions. Although it has become synonymous with doing just that over the course of his career, Mourinho actually first used the term in 2004 when criticizing Tottenham for their defensive set-up against his Chelsea side.
It is defined as: “Playing very defensively, usually having the majority of outfield players near their own goal and showing little attacking intent.”
Full list of terminology includes: Cruyff turn, rabona, Panenka, total football, Gegenpressing, tiki-taka, park the bus, false nine, Z row, trequartista, zonal marking, squeaky bum time, top-scoring, outfield and over the Top.
