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Reader question: Please explain “having a ball” in this sentence: A drive down Gargaresh Street in central Tripoli suggests that foreign investors are having a ball in post-revolution Libya (The Economist, October 5, 2013). My comments: Clearly, not just sports people can have a ball – the round thing to play with, bouncing up and down the floor, to and fro. Think of the orange colored basketball, the olive shaped American football or the smaller white golf ball or the ping pong ball. Investors can have a ball, too – that is, even investors, who play with money, can have a ball. But in their case, “having a ball” is a metaphor. They’re just having a good time – They must be good returns on their money, to be exact. The ball in investors “having a ball”, you see, has nothing to do with the playing ball. Rather, it is a party. Ball, as in ball room dancing, refers to big parties thrown in olden times. “Ball” came from the old French verb baller, meaning to dance. In olden times, formal parties were called a ball because people always came to dance on the occasion. The ball room, as it were, was a large room to accommodate large congregations and the occasion was elegant, formal, few and far between. Apparently a ball always generated a lot of excitement locally and people always had a good time there. The rarity of the occasion helped to make such occasions all the more memorable. | 
