/ˈbændi/
[verb] To pass something, such as words or ideas, back and forth between people, often in a casual or argumentative way. It can also describe legs that curve outward at the knees.
'Bandy' began as a stick-and-ball game, and the image of hitting something back and forth became the word for any heated exchange of words.
The word 'bandy' takes us back to the rough and lively sports fields of 16th-century France, where a game called 'bandé' was played with curved sticks and a ball. The French verb 'bander' meant to strike or drive back, and it is closely connected to the idea of banding together — using force or tension. This French root came from an even older Germanic source related to the word 'band', meaning something tied or bound with tension, like a bowstring drawn tight.
The game of bandé crossed the English Channel and became enormously popular in England, where it is considered one of the direct ancestors of both field hockey and ice hockey. Players would strike the ball back and forth across the field repeatedly, each side returning it to the other. It is from this relentless back-and-forth motion — the ball flying from stick to stick — that the word picked up its most enduring meaning.
By the late 16th century, English writers were using 'bandy' to describe the exchange of words, blows, or accusations between people. To 'bandy words' with someone meant to toss arguments or insults back and forth, just like players hitting a ball between them. Shakespeare used it in exactly this sense in 'King Lear', when the Earl of Kent is told not to bandy looks with a king — meaning not to throw defiant glances back and forth as if in a contest.
The physical description 'bandy-legged', meaning having legs that bow outward, appears to come from a comparison to the curved sticks used in the game. A bandy stick was bent and bowed, and by the 17th century people were borrowing that image to describe legs with a similar outward curve. It is a small but vivid linguistic leap — from a piece of sporting equipment to a description of the human body.
What makes 'bandy' especially interesting is how completely the sporting origin has faded from everyday awareness. Most people who use the phrase 'don't bandy my name about' — meaning don't carelessly toss someone's reputation around in conversation — have no idea they are borrowing the image of a ball being knocked back and forth on a muddy field. The game itself is largely forgotten in English-speaking countries, yet the energy and rhythm of that ancient sport lives on invisibly inside the word.