OED serves up volley of new definitions from tennis

The dictionary’s latest online update has added a clutch of ‘new’ terms describing the game, some dating back to the 16th century

Tennis lovers will have more than the quality of their champagne and strawberries to contemplate between matches at Wimbledon this year. The game is the source of more than 80 new words and senses, the bulk of the new definitions added to the Oxford English Dictionary in its latest online update.

Some well-known terms make their debut in the venerable reference work, including “superbrat” (players prone to on-court outbursts), “changeover” (a pause in a match when players swap ends of the court) and “forced error” (a mistake in play generated by an opponent’s skill).

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