Roundhouse punch

Posted by ESC on January 25, 2004

In Reply to: ...crushing round house... posted by Mario on January 25, 2004

: ...delivers a crushing round house to the action genre.

: What does "delivers a crushing round house" means?

It probably refers to a "roundhouse punch." I tried to find an origin of that specific term and couldn't. However, I am guessing that the origin is round house (railroad term)/ roundhouse curve (baseball term)/roundhouse punch.

ROUND HOUSE - A railroad term for "a circular building concentric with the center of a turntable on which railroad engines are turned, cleaned, and repaired, 1850s." From I Hear America Talking: An Illustrated History of American Words and Phrases by Stuart Berg Flexner (Von Nostrand Reinhold Co., New York, 1976). And there's a baseball term: ".roundhouse curve in the late 1890s, when it was also called a 'barrel hoop curve.' Christy Mathewson's outcurve was called a 'barrel hoop curve'." From Listening to America: An Illustrated History of Words and Phrases from Our Lively and Splendid Past by Stuart Berg Flexner (Simon and Schuster, New York, 1982). An online dictionary says: round.house -- Pronunciation: raund-haus. Function: noun. 1 archaic : LOCKUP 2 : a circular building for housing and repairing locomotives 3 : a blow delivered with a wide swing. From Merriam-Webster online at www.merriam-webster.com/ Accessed January 25, 2004.

• Roundhouse punch Bruce Kahl 25/January/04
  • Listen, grasshopper Musashi 26/January/04