The etymology of the “off side and on side” in cricket goes back to the 19th century when transport was done by carriages and not motor vehicles. The carriages were brought into the cricket field for reasons that are unknown. “The off side” was the opposite side of where the rider would walk or mount, the leg side/on side (originally called “the near side”) being the other end. The field got divided into two halves. If you play away from your legs, it’s called the “off side” and if it is nearest to your legs, it is called the “leg side”.

 

Here is a bit about the etymology of the main fielding positions in cricket:

 

Slips – This is one of the more logical fielding positions. This probably began when the captains started asking their fielders to stand next to the keeper to take advantage of any ‘slip’ (mistake)  from the batsman, meaning that the slip fielders had to catch the balls which took the edge of the bat.

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Point- The term ‘point’ came  from the phrase “near the point (direction of the face) of the bat”. This is a clear indicator of the fact that the ‘point’ in early days was a more close-in position than the one we are used to seeing today, at the edge of the 30-yard circle.

 

  Gully –This stems from the literal meaning of the word ‘gully’, which is ‘a narrow channel’. The slips and the point were close catching positions but soon the captains realised that the ball often passed through the gap between these fields men. To plug this ‘gap’ or ‘gully’, they employed another fieldsman in that area.

 

Third man – It is important to understand here that the ‘gully’ and ‘third man’ are fairly new positions and each came about with no knowledge of the other existing. With the slip and point guarding the offside behind the square, a “third” was placed to stem the gap between them. At first, this position was closer to the batsman than today.

 

Covers- There are two theories to this position. The first is that: Post-play, covers were placed in some areas of the field and when a match was going on, the captain instructed his fielders to stand near where the “covers” were kept usually.

The other theory simply claims that the ‘covers’ was a fieldsman who covered the ‘point’ and ‘middle wicket’.

 

Mid-on and Mid-off – You may think that these terms refer to the “middle-ness” of the position and that they are not too far away from the batsman, nor too close. However, this is a big misconception. The terms 'mid-on' and 'mid-off' stem from the terms ‘middle wicket off’ and ‘middle wicket on’ used earlier.

The ‘middle wicket’ was a player stationed on the off-side between extra cover and the bowler. Soon, the players and captains realised that there is a need for the same fielder on the leg side. To differentiate between the 2 fielders, one on the leg side and one on the on side, they became “Mid-on” and Mid-off”

 

The terms ‘long-on’ and ‘long-off’  were comparable to mid-on and mid-off, but farther away from the batsman and nearer to the boundary.

 

Mid-wicket – This term does not have a full explanation to it. Though a traditionally used term, it received its current meaning somewhere in the 1930s. Prior to that, it was just another name for “middle-wicket off”.

 

Fine-leg and Square-leg: The term ‘fine’ means ‘straight’ i.e. nearer to the imaginary line that can be drawn between the stumps of the strikers’ and non-strikers’ end. The term ‘square’ means nearer to the line of the batsman's crease. For example, if a player is standing near the ‘square-leg umpire’ he is in a ‘square’ position and if he moves towards ‘fine-leg’, he is getting ‘finer’.

are now easy to understand; if a batsman hit the ball bowled nearer to his leg ‘square’ on the on-side, it would be fielded by the ‘square-leg’ position and if his hit is fine-leg and square-legThe terms finer, it would go towards the direction of ‘fine-leg.