Not too long ago, I asked my readership about the term cow corner. Now, I’ve got another one: jaffa. I know what it means: a very good, often unplayable, delivery that beats or dismisses a batsman. Just don’t know where or how the term originated. The word is not in the English dictionary either. The only Jaffa outside of the cricket world is a city in Israel, apparently.
What dost thou say?
March 3, 2006 at 2:33 pm
Jaffa is a variety of orange apparently. But I haven’t been able to find out why an orange was used to indicate an unplayable ball. Perhaps someone fooled a batsman once by bowling with a Jaffa orange, which the batsman failed to negotiate and ended up making an ass of himself …
March 3, 2006 at 3:46 pm
Once again, it’s me — the savior of Pratik’s curiosity. Jagadish was partly right.
“A slang term used to describe a delivery bowled so well by the bowler it is unplayable. The term is thought to originate from the sweet (candy) of the same name, which is a small orange coloured chocolate filled ball. It may also come from the fruit of the same name, an orange known as the Jaffa, which is a very sweet seedless variety.”
Source:
http://www.abcofcricket.com/cfb1/cfb2/cfb3/cct/cct3/cct3.htm
March 3, 2006 at 3:53 pm
“a widely used term meaning an unplayable ball – one that deviates or spins alarmingly off the pitch. The origin could be related to the delivery being ‘juicy’. ”
Source:
http://www.channel4.com/sport/cricket/analyst/jargon/ana_26.html
March 4, 2006 at 5:58 pm
well, I thot you were reffering either to Wasim Jaffer or Gaffe!
March 5, 2006 at 4:59 pm
Thanks for the info, guys.
January 2, 2008 at 10:45 pm
Well, there is connection to the city of Jaffa in Israel. The Jaffa orange is a very sweet, almost seedless orange exported from Israel. It takes its name from the port city of Jaffa. The term derived from the fact that a Jaffa is almost a prefect, or in other words, ‘a very sweet’ delivery.
January 8, 2008 at 4:37 am
Thanks for the info, Nik.