Thread: WHEN TWO FIGHTERS HAVE 3RD FIGHT WHY DO THEY CALL IT THE RUBBER MATCH ??

When I was a kid, I used to watch "The Hollywood Squares," and Peter Marshall would always refer to the tie-breaking round as "the rubber match." I'd sit there and think, "Huh?" In later years, I found out that it was a term relating to cards (bridge specifically?). But why rubber?

I don't want to be forced to repeat this answer, but: no one knows. Rubber meaning '(in various games) a series of three (or sometimes five) games', and hence 'a deciding game played in a contest the score is tied' first appears in the late sixteenth century referring to the game of bowls (that is, lawn bowling).

The word rubber meaning 'a highly elastic solid substance made from the milky juice of various plants' is a different story: it is formed from the verb to rub with the agentive suffix -er, with a few semantic twists before it gets to the current sense. The original meaning, from the mid-sixteenth century, is 'a tool used for rubbing in order to polish or make clean'. The more specific sense that concerns us is 'a piece of rubber used to erase pencil marks', which appears in the late eighteenth century.

Though it seems backward, rubber in the sense 'an elastic substance', which is first attested around 1800, actually derives from the use of this substance as an eraser. This is an impressive example of the process called generalization, where a word is generalized from a specific application. Other examples, not quite as striking, are pigeon, which originally meant 'a young dove', and then came to mean 'any bird, regardless of age, of the family Columbidae'; and virtue, which originally meant 'manly excellence; valor', and then came to mean 'moral excellence'.

This is all a long way of saying that the word rubber you're asking about is two hundred years older than the word rubber meaning 'an elastic substance'. The origin of the 'series of three games' sense is unknown; it could be related to the other word rubber (which, at the time, meant only 'a tool for rubbing'), but the connection, if any, is obscure.


I'm still just as clueless though :P

yea me to bro thanks for that anyway cc

Simple. Both fighters win a match against each other.

Then comes the rubber match. It's generally been called a rubber match because it can go either way for either player...like a rubber band...hence the rubber match.

The deciding win...that's what I've always thought it meant.

I FOUND THIS Is a 'rubber' of bridge related, ie, a three part game?
Yes. Bridge is the place where this is used most frequently ... but it is applied in almost every other case of a deciding third competition, from sport to elections to whatever.

Originally Posted by wacko3205

Simple. Both fighters win a match against each other.

Then comes the rubber match. It's generally been called a rubber match because it can go either way for either player...like a rubber band...hence the rubber match.

The deciding win...that's what I've always thought it meant.

Well thanks for stating the obvious here Mr Wacko

I think it's fair to say we all know a rubber match is the third and deciding fight but why 'rubber match' exactly?

I did like you your rubber band analagy though, you could be onto something there..........

Actually reminds me another big mystery, 'Why is the day after Christmas called Boxing Day?',

Originally Posted by bilbo

Originally Posted by wacko3205

Simple. Both fighters win a match against each other.

Then comes the rubber match. It's generally been called a rubber match because it can go either way for either player...like a rubber band...hence the rubber match.

The deciding win...that's what I've always thought it meant.

Well thanks for stating the obvious here Mr Wacko

I think it's fair to say we all know a rubber match is the third and deciding fight but why 'rubber match' exactly?

I did like you your rubber band analagy though, you could be onto something there..........

Hey babe...just trying to help.

If the rubber band thing doesn't suit you...just use something else that does...just a rubber...for your head. Richard Noggin.

Originally Posted by bilbo

Actually reminds me another big mystery, 'Why is the day after Christmas called Boxing Day?',

The reason that the December 26th was known as 'Boxing Day' was the fact that many centuries ago, the Lord and Lady of the manor/castle/estate gathered together at the manor house, castle etc., the workers including those from the outlying fields, forests and streams, the day after Christmas Day and organised the distribution of the annual necessities, done according to the status of the worker and the size of the family.

Into boxes and barrels would go supplies of cloth spun by the spinsters, the cobblers leather goods, new tools and supplies of salt and spices. Also dried goods such as meat, fish, vegetables and some fruit and cereals grown on the estate for bread making. This the giving out of such boxes became "Boxing Day".

Sweetie Scone Day
Also it was that Boxing Day was in some parts of Scotland was known as 'Sweetie Scone' Day. As part of the Festive Fayre in humble hooses, the cottage gudebread included 'sweetie-skons' (Sweetie Scones), which contained dried fruit and spices, and were the forerunner of oor modern "Currant Loaf". The ingredients more than likely given by the Lord or Lady of the estate, as there were few homes that could afford such luxury of dried fruit and spices, but friendly neighbours would make up the deficit to those that could not afford, nor had the ingredients. So it was the custom that either the Lord / Lady of the estate, to their workers, would invite them to sample or to give the 'sweetie-skon' or that neighbours would invite neighbours to sample or give the 'Sweetie Scone' to others.

Boxing Day Today
Nowadays though, cannie Scots often wait till Boxing Day before the purchase of items of high cost, for nothing worse than to have bought before the 25th to find the price much reduced after then!

But, although called 'Boxing Day' the 26th had nothing to do with the contest of sparring, when I espy some of the lassies almost coming to blows with each other when a 'sale bargain' in the last of its number, and more wishing that article than hangs on a rack, then maybe the name for the after Christmas Day was well enough named....

Originally Posted by bilbo

Actually reminds me another big mystery, 'Why is the day after Christmas called Boxing Day?',

Not sure about that one...maybe because...you spend all day boxing up all the piss poor gifts that you want to send back?

Never heard that one.

Originally Posted by wacko3205

Originally Posted by bilbo

Originally Posted by wacko3205

Simple. Both fighters win a match against each other.

Then comes the rubber match. It's generally been called a rubber match because it can go either way for either player...like a rubber band...hence the rubber match.

The deciding win...that's what I've always thought it meant.

Well thanks for stating the obvious here Mr Wacko

I think it's fair to say we all know a rubber match is the third and deciding fight but why 'rubber match' exactly?

I did like you your rubber band analagy though, you could be onto something there..........

Hey babe...just trying to help.

If the rubber band thing doesn't suit you...just use something else that does...just a rubber...for your head. Richard Noggin.

I'm only messing Wacko, I love your rubber band analagy, it does actually make sense although 'pendulem swing' would be even more accurate.

Originally Posted by bilbo

Originally Posted by wacko3205

Originally Posted by bilbo

Originally Posted by wacko3205

Simple. Both fighters win a match against each other.

Then comes the rubber match. It's generally been called a rubber match because it can go either way for either player...like a rubber band...hence the rubber match.

The deciding win...that's what I've always thought it meant.

Well thanks for stating the obvious here Mr Wacko

I think it's fair to say we all know a rubber match is the third and deciding fight but why 'rubber match' exactly?

I did like you your rubber band analagy though, you could be onto something there..........

Hey babe...just trying to help.

If the rubber band thing doesn't suit you...just use something else that does...just a rubber...for your head. Richard Noggin.

I'm only messing Wacko, I love your rubber band analagy, it does actually make sense although 'pendulem swing' would be even more accurate.

Dunno about the penulum swing theory - that would mean the person that won the first one would in the 3rd one!!!

Originally Posted by bilbo

Originally Posted by wacko3205

Originally Posted by bilbo

Originally Posted by wacko3205

Simple. Both fighters win a match against each other.

Then comes the rubber match. It's generally been called a rubber match because it can go either way for either player...like a rubber band...hence the rubber match.

The deciding win...that's what I've always thought it meant.

Well thanks for stating the obvious here Mr Wacko

I think it's fair to say we all know a rubber match is the third and deciding fight but why 'rubber match' exactly?

I did like you your rubber band analagy though, you could be onto something there..........

Hey babe...just trying to help.

If the rubber band thing doesn't suit you...just use something else that does...just a rubber...for your head. Richard Noggin.

I'm only messing Wacko, I love your rubber band analagy, it does actually make sense although 'pendulem swing' would be even more accurate.

As was I babe...as was I.

Thing is...don't you think that pendulem swing sounds a bit...deathly?

bloddy hell 41 views in 5 mins

Boxing is a very old sport.
Back in the Greek town of Olympia, the sport was done nude. So, if there was to be a third fight to settle who was the best 2 out of 3, or 3 out of 5, a condom was used and fighters were allowed to turn their opponents around and try to stick it to him. The best way to do this was illustrated by Marco Antonio Barrera when he grabbed Prince NAS, and threw him into a corner. Remember? So, people back then knew that condoms were good protection. People stopped using condoms in the 60's thanks to those dirty hippies.

Thus ends my history course for today.

Class dismissed.

Don't forget to bring a towel.

Mister Towelie.