Frisbee

Frisbee
   The Frisbee, one might imagine, is a child's toy. But adults also enjoy flipping to one another these plastic, saucer-shaped disks that skim through the air. In fact adults began sailing slim plates as an outdoor sport. Because they were not boomerangs, they therefore needed someone to catch the initial flip and sail it back. One historian maintained that the game began on the Yale campus in 1827 when an undergraduate showed his displeasure at being compelled to attend chapel services by hurling the collection plate through an open door. The flipping of plates caught on (collection plates?), and a new pastime was born.
   A story that has better credentials cites the drivers of the Frisbie Pie Company of Bridgeport, Connecticut, who, during their lunch breaks, amused themselves by throwing around tin pie plates. With time, this fun activity took hold at Yale University, and then spread to other campuses around the country. The students found it sport to sail these tins, reminiscent of flying saucers, toward one another and then have them hurled back. One way or another, Yale gets the credit for launching the Frisbee toss. The name of the pie company was later emblazoned onto the saucer, which then became known as Frisbee, and the saucers' material changed to plastic. Just about 1950 a certain Fred Morrison introduced on the West Coast a product he called the original "Flyin' Saucer" and hawked his product for seven years. At that time two ingenious entrepreneurs began the manufacture of plastic circular plates and kept the name "Frisbee" to honor the Frisbie Pie Company. By using assembly lines, they were able to produce large quantities of this throwing disk and, in fact, sold more than 100 million of them.

Dictionary of eponyms. . 2013.

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Look at other dictionaries:

  • frisbee — [ frizbi ] n. m. • v. 1978; mot angl. amér.; marque déposée ♦ Anglic. Disque en plastique, légèrement bombé, destiné à être lancé (de façon à le faire planer) et renvoyé avec un mouvement de rotation. Par ext. Jeu qui se joue avec ce disque.… …   Encyclopédie Universelle

  • Frisbee — 1957, trademark registered 1959 by Wham O Co., the prototype modeled on pie tins from Mrs. Frisbie s Pies, made by the Frisbie Bakery of Bridgeport, Ct., U.S. Middlebury College students began tossing them around in the 1930s (though Yale and… …   Etymology dictionary

  • frisbee® — {{hw}}{{frisbee®}}{{/hw}}s. m. inv. Nome commerciale di un leggero disco di plastica che si lancia in giochi singoli o a squadre | Il gioco stesso …   Enciclopedia di italiano

  • frisbee — |frísbi| s. m. Disco de plástico destinado a planar ao ser lançado em rotação, usado como jogo. = DISCO VOADOR • Plural: frisbees.   ‣ Etimologia: palavra inglesa, de marca registrada …   Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa

  • Frisbee — (izg. frȉzbi) m DEFINICIJA plastična igračka plosnatog okruglog oblika sa zavrnutim rubom, baca se kroz zrak ETIMOLOGIJA engl. tvorničko ime proizvoda©, prema imenu kompanije koja je proizvodila metalne konzerve za pitu koje su se poslije… …   Hrvatski jezični portal

  • frisbee — ► NOUN trademark ▪ a plastic disc designed for skimming through the air as an outdoor game. ORIGIN said to be named after the pie tins of the Frisbie bakery in Connecticut …   English terms dictionary

  • Frisbee — ☆ Frisbee [friz′bē ] [altered < Frisbie: tins from “Mother Frisbie s” pies were orig. used for the game by students at Yale University] trademark for a plastic, saucer shaped disk sailed back and forth between players in a simple game n. [also …   English World dictionary

  • Frisbee® — /frizˈbi/ noun A plastic saucer shaped disc which can be made to skim through the air, used in various catching games, etc …   Useful english dictionary

  • Frisbee —  Pour l’article homonyme, voir Frisbee (attraction).  Un adolescent lance un frisbee. Le frisbee, ou disque volant, ou discoplane …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Frisbee — Ein Frisbee, auch Flugscheibe, Schwebedeckel, Segelscheibe oder Wurfscheibe genannt, ist ein meist aus Kunststoff gefertigtes, scheibenförmiges Sport und Freizeitgerät. Es wird durch aerodynamischen Auftrieb und Kreiselbewegung in der Luft… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Frisbee — Para otros usos de este término, véase Frisbee (desambiguación). Un frisbee profesional, fabricado por Wham O …   Wikipedia Español

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