A radio talkback caller described many of the activities of the bureaucrats living in the Canberra bubble as being nothing more than a ‘boondoggle’. Now that’s a lovely word to choose! It means useless or pointless activity. It appears to come from the Old West in the USA when ranch hands with lots of down time in between roundups would, rather than being completely idle, fashion small, decorative items out of leather. These small items were called ‘boondoggles’ (for no reason that anyone has yet been able to discover).

The word only appeared in print in 1935 (in the New York Times) but there it was said to go back to ‘pioneering times’ and to have originally meant something like ‘gadgets’ – which fits in with the idle time in the bunkhouse story. commentator at the World Cup said that one player seemed to be suffering from ‘the yips’. Which puzzled me. A bit of research suggests this is a complaint that can only strike sports people. It first appeared in print in 1935 – with the meaning of ‘a state of nervousness which causes a player to miss an easy putt in a competition’.

As that definition tells you this started life as golfing slang (it made its first appearance in a magazine called American Golfer). The Oxford says ‘origin obscure’ but I think we can do better than that. As any golfer will tell you, you have to be relaxed, settled and concentrating to play the game.

And if someone in the public gallery makes a strange noise that might put you right off your game. And as long ago as the 1400s ‘yip’ meant a short cry or yelp. Enough to spoil any backswing! Since then ‘The Yips’ has broadened in meaning to cover anything that puts any sportsman off his or her game.