What is the meaning of ‘Adidas’? Where does the word come from?
(K. Shanthi, Bangalore)
The word doesn’t really mean anything. There was time when people believed that ‘Adidas’ was an acronym for ‘All Day I Dream About Sport’. Of course, some people thought that the ‘s’ stood for something else! Neither story is based on fact. The founder of Adidas was a German named Adolf Dassler; he was nicknamed ‘Adi’ by his friends. When Dassler started his company in 1924, he decided to name it after himself. He combined his nickname ‘Adi’ with the first half of his surname ‘Dassler’ and got ‘Adidas’! Starting a shoe company seems to have run in the family. Adolph Dassler’s brother, Rudolph, was the founder of the Puma shoe company.
What is the meaning and origin of ‘hitting below the belt’?
(R. Saranyaraj, Coimbatore)
When you hit someone below the belt, you are being rather cruel or unfair; you are not playing by the rules of the game. You are using unfair means to get what you want, and in the process you deliberately hurt the other person.
*Making fun of the poor woman’s dead husband was definitely hitting below the belt.
The expression comes from the world of boxing. According to the Marquis of Queensbury Rules, a boxer is allowed to hit his opponent only on the upper body or the head. He is not allowed to hit below the waist belt.
S. UPENDRAN
upendrankye@gmail.com
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