handegg

• hand-egg

From hand +‎ egg. The jocular implication is that the name football ought to denote using the foot to propel a ball-shaped [i.e. spherical] object, which is the usual case for soccer, as opposed to using the hand to propel an egg-shaped [i.e. spheroid] object.

• IPA^(key): /ˈhændɛɡ/

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛɡ

handegg (countable and uncountable, plural handeggs)

1. (slang, uncountable, humorous) Any of the sports that are called football but are played mainly with the hands and with a prolate spheroid ball; that is, American football and (less often) Canadian, Australian and rugby football (including league and union varieties).
   • 1909 November 9, letter to the editor, in The New York Times:

     Football is certainly a misnomer, for the game is played not with the feet but with the hands, and the ball is not a ball but an egg. I propose that the game be played with the feet and with a ball, or else that it be called “hand-egg”.

   • 2002 June 8, p/g, “Why does Arafat still draw breath?”, in alt.music.rush (Usenet):

     Yes, but would anyone show up for a game of handegg?

   • 2011 February 1, "FileServe FileSonic XXX" (username), "Innocent High - Jynx Maze XXX - 303 MB", worlds_sexiest_women:

     When I get there he was watching handegg. I’m not into that hand egg shit so we got into a heated argument on which was better.

   • 2011 February 8, "RVG" (username), "french pride", in fr.soc.politique:

     You're wrong, kids all around the world play football, it just takes a ball and a pair of sneakers, whereas handegg requires a full body armour.

2. (slang, countable, humorous) The ball used to play such a game.

• American handegg