At the risk of boring the list...
<snip>
Is the ball 'spun' in baseball, as in cricket? Not something I would know.
If it isn't, that might suggest that the influence ran both ways. [CW]
<snip>
Upon reflection, I'm not at all sure about this.
'Spin doctors' tend to be described as putting *a positive spin* upon bad or
embarrassing news, as though *spin* were a rotating motion (as with a ball)
and capable of alteration or reversal. Metaphors which map opinion onto
direction ('that's the opposite of what I mean', 'you've got that back to
front' etc) are often static; so anything more dynamic interests me.
However, it may just be a folk explanation after all (ie: balls), even
though it's taken off.
Metaphors which map language or communication onto weaving (*spinning
yarns*, *following clues*, *writing spin-offs* and so forth) are common
enough to suggest that, in principle, the _sense_ of *spin doctor* as one
who glosses or interferes with an existing text may be a good deal older.
Cf.Congreve's Mr Spintext (to whom memory led me, thinking him _Doctor_
Spintext), in *The Old Bachelor*, for example.
CW
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