Talk:highball

What is the etymology of "highball" ?

The term "highball" or "high ball", commonly spelled as either one word or two words, can be a noun or a verb, and although a brief definition already exists at Wiktionary, here is a more detailed definition, as follows.

The term high ball comes from the days long ago when hand held lanterns were used as signals on trains, that when the brakes had been released and the train was ready to roll, the brakeman would lean out to the side of the train where his signal could be seen by the train's engineer, and he would hold his lantern up high as a "high ball" signal that the train was ready to go.

Reference? I first learned that definition several decades ago, of a train signal in use long before I was born.

Wikipedia.doug 08:50, 21 July 2011 (UTC)