Submitted 3 weeks ago by HottieAutie@lemmy.dbzer0.com to nostupidquestions@lemmy.world
Referee, umpire, official, judge, etc. Why are there different names rather than just one?
Umpire comes from the french nonper meaning not equal. Interestingly, many English words used to begin with ‘n’ but the letter was dropped through time because of blurring with the indefinite article ‘an’. Examples include (n)adder, (n)apple, (n)apron, (n)orange, (n)uncle.
Each sport has different jargon for their officials, and some sports use them differently than others. Some sports (like football) use them all at once. There are some distinctions that tend to run across multiple different sports, not perfectly, but good enough to discuss.
Umpires tend to make binary decisions based strictly on the rulebook. Yes, sometimes there is some Grey area, like whether a batter “swung” or not. But the decisions are often yes/no.
Judges tend to make more subjective decisions, comparing against some sort of ideal rather than a binary decision. In most sports where scores are not accumulated based on goals but assigned by officials based on how well they perform their routine, those officials are judges.
Referees tend to make broader decisions that impact the overall game. They are also more likely to talk directly with coaches on either side, or the spectators.
This is what I was looking for. Thank you very much!
Add motor racing having Stewards who make the decisions.
I gotchu, boo 😘
xmunk@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
They’re jargon and they developed independently… sports jargon has a strong continuation pressure because there’s a lot of esoteric knowledge and an in crowd that wants you to know they’re inside the bubble.
some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org 3 weeks ago
Hence the term: inside baseball.
jaggedrobotpubes@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
And see, football and tennis and rowing have completely different terms for that.
Really makes you think.