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 Fri Jan 26, 2007 5:56 am meaning of heavy-hitting |
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A heavy hitter is a baseball player who can hit the ball very often, very hard and very far. This means he hits the ball out of the stadium a lot, and he scores a lot of points for his team.
So this public relations firm is very powerful at what it does, and it scores a lot of big successes for its clients.
To understand American business English well, it's helpful to understand the game of baseball and know some of the slang that's used in it. Baseball and American football terms, along with expressions from basketball and cowboy life are inescapable in any language having to to with business in the US. |
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Jamie (K)
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| Fri Jan 26, 2007 16:36 pm meaning of heavy-hitting |
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| Jamie (K) wrote: | | To understand American business English well, it's helpful to understand the game of baseball and know some of the slang that's used in it. Baseball and American football terms, along with expressions from basketball and cowboy life are inescapable in any language having to to with business in the US. |
Could you please tell us a few business expressions derived from cowboy jargon? |
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Conchita
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| Fri Jan 26, 2007 16:46 pm meaning of heavy-hitting |
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Hi,
I would suggest 'aggressive' for heavy-hitting - why has it to do with baseball?
A
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Alan
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| Sat Jan 27, 2007 2:17 am meaning of heavy-hitting |
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| Alan wrote: | | I would suggest 'aggressive' for heavy-hitting - why has it to do with baseball? |
Oxford American Dictionary:
heavy hitter noun informal
1 an important or powerful person : a high-profile national issue pitting heavy hitters in the Senate against the Department of Agriculture.
2 a high-scoring athlete.
The only sports I know of where you hit are boxing, baseball and cricket. You don't hit people or things in soccer, track, basketball or swimming.
The PR firm referred to in the quotation was not hired merely because they punch a lot, but because they hit hard and are successful. You could conceivably imagine a boxer, but when it comes to corporations and PR firms, I assume they are hired not only for their aggressiveness, but also for their quick thinking, their ability to read the psychology of the opponent, and to deal with unexpected situations (which we would call "curve balls"), and to get spectacular results with great efficiency. This fits the profile of what we call heavy-hitting baseball player. |
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Jamie (K)
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| Sat Jan 27, 2007 2:33 am meaning of heavy-hitting |
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| Conchita wrote: | | Could you please tell us a few business expressions derived from cowboy jargon? |
It's not that we have "business English" expressions derived from cowboy jargon, it's that we use cowboy jargon all the time, including in business.
In companies you might hear expressions like these:
trigger happy
to shoot oneself in the foot
to bite the dust
ballyhoo
to rope someone into something
to lasso someone into something
to cut a path
to get a wiggle on
to hanker
to high tail
look-see
to saddle up
to ride someone out on a rail
to skedaddle
to be back in the saddle
to round something up
a roundup
on the warpath
There are probably scores more, but those are the only ones I can think of now.
One really funny thing is when someone in the European government or media elites decides to "insult" some American president by calling him a cowboy. I'm not sure how Europeans imagine a cowboy, but calling someone that can be a great compliment in the US. |
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Jamie (K)
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| Sat Jan 27, 2007 11:55 am meaning of heavy-hitting |
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In the UK if you refer to a builder, a roofer, a plumber or say a carpenter as a 'cowboy', you mean someone who has done a botched up piece of work and charged a ridiculously high sum of money for it.
A
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Alan
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| Sat Jan 27, 2007 16:32 pm meaning of heavy-hitting |
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| Alan wrote: | | In the UK if you refer to a builder, a roofer, a plumber or say a carpenter as a 'cowboy', you mean someone who has done a botched up piece of work and charged a ridiculously high sum of money for it. |
That's a very strange meaning to attach to the word "cowboy". We call that person a shyster, a swindler or a con artist (of which there are many types). There's a specific expression or two for a skilled tradesman of that sort, but I can't think of one now.
In the US a cowboy is thought of as someone who is practical-minded, highly skilled at a variety of things, doesn't lose his composure under pressure, thinks on his feet, can react quickly in a rapidly changing situation, has the courage to take risks that other people are afraid to, and is very intelligent in a down-to-earth way. |
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Jamie (K)
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| Sat Jan 27, 2007 16:34 pm meaning of heavy-hitting |
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Interesting...
See definitions 3 + 4 here.
Both definitions are well-known to me.  |
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Yankee
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| Sat Jan 27, 2007 16:37 pm meaning of heavy-hitting |
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| Yankee wrote: | Interesting...
See definitions 3 + 4 here.
Both definitions are well-known to me. |
Amy, that links to the Foothill College registration page. |
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Jamie (K)
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Yankee
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Yankee
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| Sat Jan 27, 2007 17:04 pm meaning of heavy-hitting |
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Amy, both links lead to the American Heritage definition. |
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Jamie (K)
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| Sat Jan 27, 2007 17:11 pm meaning of heavy-hitting |
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Sorry, my mouse doesn't seem to be copying links properly this morning. 
http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?book=Dictionary&va=cowboy
The point is, I disagree that calling someone a "cowboy" is always something positive in the US. To me it is more often critical or negative unless the person really is someone who works on a ranch (or rodeo, etc.) as a cowboy. |
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Yankee
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| Sat Jan 27, 2007 17:22 pm meaning of heavy-hitting |
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| Yankee wrote: | | The point is, I disagree that calling someone a "cowboy" is always something positive in the US. To me it is more often critical or negative unless the person really is someone who works on a ranch (or rodeo, etc.) as a cowboy. |
It depends on what's going on. But if you call someone a cowboy out of context, it's usually positive. And if the president of France, or some EU bigwig in Brussels calls some American politician a cowboy, and intends it to be an insult, it loses its intended effect, because just being insulted by those guys is considered positive. Most Americans think that being a cowboy is much more positive than being a member of the chattering classes of Europe, so they think that if one of our politicians has aggravated a European (especially French) politician or diplomat, then he must have done something right.
Maybe it depends on how far west you grew up.  |
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Jamie (K)
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| difference between collquial and slang | Expression: 'She reported (his) having seen the gunman.' |
