cornerball n [Calque of PaGer eckball(e) < Ger dial Eckball (and varr)] esp sePA Cf mush pot n, mush n4
= bullpen n.
1828 Atlee Essays Poetry 30 sePA (as of c1790), He, meanwhile, / At leisure times, would oft his hours beguile, / In visiting among his German neighbours. . . / And at their various Sports was oftimes seen; / And many a Fall he got, upon the Green, / In wrestling, leaping, running, corner-ball. 1840 Madisonian (Washington DC) 4 Feb [3]/6 KY, [Letter:] Witness the millionaire, of New York, whose name has become as familiar to every school-boy in the west, as the word ‘Bull pen,’ alias Corner-ball. 1850 IL State Reg. (Springfield) [19 Sept 2]/5, It was the most serious game of “corner ball” I ever saw played. This thing of dodging cannon balls may sound strange to the reader, but it is no less strange than true. 1877 Scott Hist. Fairfield Co. OH 251 (as of c1820), Our games of ball were bull-pen, or corner-ball, cat-ball and town-ball. 1883 Newell Games & Songs 183, Corner-Ball. This is also an old game kept up by the Pennsylvania Germans. . . Four players stand on the four angles of a square, and the four adversaries in the centre. The ball is passed from one to another of the players in the corners, and finally thrown at the central players. . . If the player in the corner hits a central player, the latter is out, and vice versâ. 1908 Trenton Sun. Advt. (NJ) 5 Apr 5/3 (as of c1840), We also played ‘corner ball’—a game wherein we used a ball made of strings and covered with leather. The object was to hit a player, who was then said to be ‘in the sop’ or ‘in the soup.’ 1940 Yoder Rosanna 124 PA, The boys played corner ball very well. . . The valley boys drew corners first and as they passed the ball around swiftly and then threw it at one of the two Pequea boys in the “middle” they were surprised to see how those Pequea boys could dodge the ball. . . When the valley boys had exhausted their corner force, they had to take their turns in the “middle.” 1963 Lancaster New Era (PA) 2 July 2/3, Baseball has become the favorite game of Amish youth, replacing the game of cornerball. 1968 DARE (Qu. EE33, Other outdoor games . . that children play now, or that were played in your childhood) Inf OH82, Cornerball. 1998 Lancaster New Era (PA) 27 Feb sec D 3/4, Cornerball has only one essential object—a ball. . . To play the game, four corners are formed in a rectangle about 30 to 40 feet apart. The space inside the rectangle is called the mush. . . Six men are on a team. Four men from a team are at the corners. Two men from the competing team are inside the mush. 2014 News Jrl. (Wilmington DE) 17 Mar sec A 3/1 sePA, [Caption:] A competitor dodges the ball to avoid being eliminated from a game of Cornerball on a farm near Gordonville, Pa.