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History of Umpire
The word umpire was formed by metanalysis, or the changing of the division of words based upon how they sound together. The original word in English was noumpere, which was a borrowing of the French term nompere. The -pere of nompere was the French word for “equal,” a descendant of the Latin word par (“equal”) that is the root of words like peer, pair, and, of course, par. Noumpere became the form used in English for “one without equal” or “peerless,” but frequent references to a noumpere ended up becoming references to an oumpere, which became the modern word umpire. It’s ironic that the word for a person who literally calls balls and strikes is called by a name created by a linguistic foul.
Examples of umpire in a Sentence
Evan Webeck, Mercury News, 23 Oct. 2025
The umpire called Robinson safe, while Berra animatedly disagreed.
—Angela Andaloro, PEOPLE, 18 Oct. 2025
Ryan Canfield, FOXNews.com, 25 Oct. 2025
News Of The Week Jen Pawol became the first woman to umpire a regular-season MLB game, marking a historic milestone for baseball.
—Erin Spencer Sairam, Forbes.com, 14 Aug. 2025
See All Example Sentences for umpire
Cite this Entry
“Umpire.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/umpire. Accessed 30 Oct. 2025.
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