411 REFERENCE · Wiktionary
Mexican wave
Reference material by Wiktionary contributors. This retains its source identity and is not 411 news reporting.
English
Etymology
Popularised during the 1986 FIFA World Cup held in Mexico.
Pronunciation
en en-au-Mexican wave.ogg AU
Noun
en UK Ireland Commonwealth A phenomenon that primarily occurs at sports events, where the members of the crowd stand up and/or raise their hands in turn, creating the illusion of a wave passing through the crowd.
1995, Shane Cloude, An Introduction to Electromagnetic Wave Propagation & Antennas, Springer, 0-387-91501-X, pages 3–4,
This is an important idea and can best be illustrated by analogy with a Mexican wave. Although the Mexican wave seems to involve the coherent motion of a large number of people, it is clear to those who have been involved, that the “trigger” for an individual to react is entirely spatially and temporally local, i.e. the individual reacts at the appropriate time and space point simply by waiting until his or her neighbours react.
2001, John Morgan, Debrett’s New Guide to Etiquette and Modern Manners: The Indispensable Handbook, St. Martin's Press, 0-312-28124-2, page 127,
The usual signals for standing are: at the arrival of Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother; […]; and every time the Colour passes in front of you. The effect can sometimes be like a rather well-dressed Mexican wave.
2007, Scott Hamilton, An Analog Electronics Companion: Basic Circuit Design for Engineers and Scientists, Cambridge University Press, 0521687802, page 94,
A Mexican wave travels around a stadium very much more rapidly than a person could.
en 2009 Justine Vaisutis Australia Lonely Planet http://books.google.com.au/books?id=M57hfGo4OyAC&pg=PA47&dq=%22Mexican+wave%22%7C%22Mexican+waves%22+australia+-intitle:%22%22+-inauthor:%22%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=fXiuT6CdLcX1mAXXj9G6CQ&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=%22Mexican%20wave%22%7C%22Mexican%20waves%22%20australia%20-intitle%3A%22%22%20-inauthor%3A%22%22&f=false 47 Now Australian cricket is reeling from its quadruple loss. Joining the hat trick of players exiting the game in 2007 – once-in-a-lifetime legend Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath and Damien Martyn – was the Mexican wave. Cricket Australia, which instituted the ban, acknowledged that it could be construed as ‘the fun police gone wrong’ but explained that it was the only way to stop people throwing things.
Synonyms
en audience wave US
en crowd wave US
en Kallang Wave Singapore
en wave US
Translations
A phenomenon at sports events
Chinese:
Mandarin: cmn 人浪, cmn 墨西哥人浪
Finnish: fi aalto aallot
French: fr hola f, fr ola f
German: de La Ola f, (colloquial) La-Ola-Welle f
Hungarian: hu mexikói hullám
Italian: it ola
Polish: pl meksykańska fala f
Portuguese: pt ola m
Spanish: es la ola f
Swedish: sv vågen c
Turkish: tr Meksika dalgası
Verb
To perform a Mexican wave.
Translations
to perform a Mexican wave
Finnish: fi tehdä aaltoja
Italian: it fare la ola
Spanish: es hacer la ola
en terms derived from toponyms