IdiomDaily LifeEnglish

second-guess

Meaning: To dispute or try to understand someone's reason for doing something.

Example: “Stop second-guessing yourself; the first answer was right.”

Origin: Grew out of American baseball slang: by 1913, a "second-guesser" was a fan or spectator who loudly criticized a manager's or player's decisions after the fact, safely armed with hindsight the person actually making the call in real time never had. Baseball umpires themselves were sometimes nicknamed "the guesser," sharpening the contrast between the first, real-time guess made under pressure and the easy second one made from the stands with no consequences attached. "Second-guess" as a verb in its own right is documented from 1938, with sportswriter Damon Runyon using it that November, and the word carries two related but distinct senses today: criticizing a past decision after the fact, or trying to anticipate someone else's next move in advance.

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