A baseball or softball bat designed to hit fielding practice, with a thin handle and lighter head; also, the practice of hitting such balls.
Origin uncertain, possibly from an onomatopoeia or a dialectal variant; the term entered American sports vocabulary in the late 19th century and became standard in baseball terminology.
The word 'fungo' is a total mystery to etymologists—nobody knows if it came from a funny word for the bat's sound, a coach's name, or pure linguistic chance, but it's been in baseball since the 1880s.
Complete word intelligence in one call. Free tier — 50 lookups/day.