Mulligan

How to spell mulligan

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce mulligan

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does mulligan mean?

1. nounIn informal golf, an extra stroke allowed after a poor shot, taken without counting the first attempt against the score.
2. nounA figurative second chance to do something over after a failed first attempt.

Mulligan in a sentence

• He sliced his opening drive and quietly took a mulligan off the first tee.

• After fumbling the interview, she was grateful for a mulligan when the firm called her back.

• The friendly weekend round allowed each player one mulligan on the front nine.

• The teacher offered each student a mulligan on the botched assignment.

Where does mulligan come from?

Language of origin: Celtic

This word almost certainly began life as the common Irish surname Mulligan, an anglicised form of the Gaelic Ó Maolagáin, a name built on a diminutive of maol, meaning 'bald' or 'tonsured' and by extension a devotee or follower. The leap from a family name to a golfing term for a free replacement shot is genuinely murky, and several rival stories compete: one credits a Canadian golfer named David Mulligan in the 1920s who supposedly took an extra drive off the first tee, while another points to a locker-room attendant of the same name. The sense of a second chance then spread far beyond golf into casual speech, and the stew called 'mulligan' (a tramp's improvised pot of whatever was to hand) likewise carried the surname. Because every account is anecdotal and none is documented at the time, the true path is uncertain, which is exactly why dictionaries hedge on it. The doubled spelling trap (one L then double L, single G) is best remembered simply as the Irish surname it really is.

How the word is built

• From the Irish surname Mulligan (Ó Maolagáin); no internal prefix or suffix structure, the spelling simply mirrors the family name