What was said? “If we get the funding too late, we’ll be behind the eight ball.”
Did someone really say that? Yes, when talking about the risks on a project if we get started later than planned!
What does it mean? It basically means to be put in a tight spot, at a disadvantage.
Origin: As you likely expected, it originates from the game of pool / billiards. The first known mention of the idiom was in 1920 in American newspapers. There are multiple ways to play pool, and one of them is called Eight Ball. In this game, the black eight ball cannot be hit directly unless the player striking has finished pocketing all of their balls (stripes or solids). If a player is aiming to hit their ball, but the eight ball is in fact in the way, then they are at a disadvantage as they are “behind the eight ball.” Not much more scientific than that!
On a more unrelated note, the 8 ball was a fortune telling device in the 1940’s and Mattel came out with the toy called “The Magic 8 Ball.” The idea was to ask the ball a question that yielded a yes or no answer, shaking it and revealing the answer in the “my source says…” or “try again” format.
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