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"Stud" and Fantasy Sports

A close friend of mine (JW) commonly (probably tritely, as well) uses the word "stud" when referring to a fantasy sports standout. For instance, Dirk Nowitzki has been a "stud" during the 2006 NBA Playoffs. I wonder how this term came to mean "fantasy standout." The dictionary knows no such meaning for the word.

Even a casual perusal of a poor man's dicitonary clarifies to its reader that a stud is "a horse used especially for mating." That is the denotative meaning. We will not discuss the connotative meaning, for my blog must remain "G-rated." This is the reason I cannot use this word to refer to a professional athlete who just scored a triple-double, hole-in-one, or a hat trick. Why STUD? Why not phenom, superstar, or any other word apt in description? (Shew...I'm glad this is off my chest now. After reading this post, you can no longer claim ignorance after using this term!)

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