Back To Square One Information
"Back to square one" is a phrase that means to go back to the beginning.
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the phrase most likely originated from children's games such as hopscotch and snakes and ladders.[1] The earliest recorded use of it in print is from a 1952 edition of the Economic Journal.[1]
An alternative theory is that the phrase originated from early radio commentaries of football matches by the BBC in the United Kingdom.[2] The first live radio commentary featured a Division One match between Arsenal and Sheffield United, broadcast on January 22, 1927. A grid of a football pitch divided into eight numbered squares had been printed in the previous week's Radio Times so the commentator could describe the ball's location. Square one meant the rear left quadrant of the defender's side of the field.
| 8 | 6 | 4 | 2 |
| 7 | 5 | 3 | 1 |
The theory postulates that whenever a game was restarted from a goal kick, it would be in square one, hence the phrase. However, as is clear from the diagram, there are four possible squares from which a goal kick could be taken. Furthermore, the squares system was dropped by the BBC soon after its inception, and the OED notes that over 20 years passed between its abandonment and the first recorded use of the phrase in print.[1] A number of recordings of commentary using the system survive; the phrase "back to square one" does not appear in any of them.
Trivia
Coldplay used the phrase to name the first song in their album X&Y.
References
- ^ a b c "Extract revised for OED Online". Oxford English Dictionary. http://www.oed.com/bbcwords/square-new.html.
- ^ "Radio football down the years". BBC. January 14, 2002. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/1760579.stm. Retrieved January 1, 2010.
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