Some Are Saying That Football Commentators' Favourite Phrases Are Entering the Language Too Easily. Is It a Bad Thing?

Writing in the Guardian letters page yesterday, Paul Gilchrist asked if we could "leave the phrase 'a big ask' to those football commentators responsible for the birth of this monstrosity". Sadly, Paul, it's too late. If you'd asked us early doors we might have been able to help, but big ask has been around long enough for it to become a loyal servant to the club. I mean, language. It's a game of two halves, you see, and we're well into the second.

Actually, we're not talking a game of two halves at all. A game of two halves is a football cliche that is generally recited with a self-mocking knowingness. A big ask – as in "it's a big ask to come back from 3-0 down" – has been assimilated from commentary to the mainstream without irony. When the political pundits say "it's a big ask for Gordon Brown to win the next election" the only surprise is the level of understatement.

In any case, the etymology of "big ask" suggests it predates its use in football. It's hard to be precise but the earliest usage appears to come in the fourth edition of the Dictionary of Australian Colloquialisms, published in 1996.

The same can be said for early doors. However much Ron Atkinson may have appeared to make it his own, the earliest usage seems to date back to 1902 when it indicated the time that doors opened for the riff-raff to dash to the unreserved seating.

The newest entrant to the language is "watching on", a hybrid of "watching" and "looking on" coined by 5 Live's Jonathan Pearce, which recently made its first appearance on Radio 4's Today program.

Even so, it's more of a select club than you might think. "As far as I know I've yet to add to the language," says Jackie Oatley, the BBC football commentator. "That's not to say I don't use cliche – some people seem to hate it when I say 'acres of space' – it's just I haven't yet created a signature phrase. Personally I don't mind 'acres of space'. But I can't stand 'there or thereabouts'."