What is the meaning of the phrase ‘catch air’?
To make a jump (usually in board sports or extreme sports).
What is the origin of the phrase ‘catch air’?
Out of all the phrases surrounding the word ‘catch’, ‘catch air’ is probably the least used and the least well known.
In contrast however, the word ‘catch’ is very old, derived first from the Late Latin and regular Latin captiāre and captāre respectively, before becoming cacier in Old French, followed by cachier in Anglo-Norman, and then becoming cacchen in Middle English. ‘Catch’ means to capture or seize.
The phrase ‘catch air’ meanwhile, didn’t come into the English vernacular until the 1900s, although its precise origins remain unclear. The phrase ‘catch air’ comes primarily from board sports such as skateboarding and snowboarding, but is also heard in the realm of skiing, mountain biking, inline skating and ice skating. The phrase ‘catch air’ is used to refer to the air captured when someone makes a jump in a sporting context.
There’s a very similar phrase ‘catch big air’ which refers to making a big jump in any of the aforementioned sports. Either phrase can also be used in the past tense, such as ‘I caught some big air on that jump’, and be modified in other ways too, such as in ‘You can catch some major air off a hill like that’.
Be careful not to confuse the phrase ‘catch air’ with the phrase ‘catch some air’ which means to leave a building to get some fresh air.
What are some notable uses of the phrase ‘catch air’?
You may hear the phrase ‘catch air’ and its derivatives in all sorts of competitions involving jumps. One prominent example would be the Winter Olympics, particularly in events like snowboarding and freestyle skiing. It’s also to be found in the Tony Hawk’s Video Game Series, including Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater.
