[영어 표현] Behind the Eightball

https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/behind-the-eight-ball.html

What's the meaning of the phrase 'Behind the eight ball'?

A difficult position from which it is unlikely one can escape.
빠져나갈 수 있을 것 같지 않는 어려운 처지. 
불리한 상황, 뒤쳐지고 있는 상황 등을 일컬을 때 주로 쓰는 표현입니다. 

What's the origin of the phrase 'Behind the eight ball'?

There is a dispute about the origin of this phrase. Some say that it derives from the Eight Ball version of the game of pool. The balls are numbered and must be potted in order. A turn is forfeited if a player's cue ball hits the (black) eight ball first and the game is forfeited if the eight balls is potted by mistake. A 'behind the eight ball' position leaves a player in a difficult position. There is little agreement about when the game began to be played with eight balls, or when it was first called Eight Ball.

이것은 이 어구의 기원에 대한 논쟁이다.  어떤 사람들은 에잇볼 게임에서 왔다고 말한다. 공들은 숫자가 씌여져 있고, 순서대로 넣어져야 한다. 만약에 선수의 큐 볼이 검정 에잇 볼을 처음으로 치면 한 차례는 박탈 당한다. 그리고 만약에 에잇 볼이 실수로 넣어지면 게임 자체가 박탈당한다. 비하인드 더 에잇볼 처지는 선수가 어려운 처지에 놓이게 한다. 언제 게임이 에잇볼로 플레이 되는지 혹은 언제 에잇볼로 불려졌는지에 대한 작은 협정(합의/협의)이 있다. 

Another version is that the term derives from the game of Kelly Pool, in which players are allocated one of 16 balls to pot and the players with the lower numbered balls play first. Those players that are given balls higher than eight are unlikely to win the game. This second supposed derivation carries less plausibility, as:
다른 버전은 이것이다. 이 용어는 켈리풀이라는 게임으로 부터 왔다. 켈리풀은 선수들이 16개 공중 하나를 넣는 것으로 배정되고, 낮은 숫자의 공들 가진 서수가 먼저 플레이를 한다. 이 선수들은 8보다 높은 공들이 주어지면 게임에서 이기기 쉽지 않다. 이 두번째 주장은 어원의 타당성이 낮다고 상정한다. 

- It would make just as much sense to say 'behind the seven/nine etc. ball' and no such phrases have ever entered the language. 
- The context of that explanation would suggest that the phrase would have been coined as 'after the eighth ball' (and the eighth ball isn't named as the eight ball in Kelly Pool) rather than 'behind the eight ball'. 
- The phrase means (and is documented as meaning, as early as 1931 in the New York Times), 'in a tight spot', not 'unlikely to win', which is a quite different meaning.

However, as we often find, plausibility isn't everything and further research may prove the case one way or the other. Clearly, a citation of the use of the phrase before the the use of an eight ball in the game we now call Eight Ball pool would rule that out as the origin.

Of course, there may be some altogether unrelated source. There is a game called Eight-ball Croquet, for instance, which pre-dates both of the above forms of pool/billiards. The eight ball isn't specifically named in that game, so it is difficult to see how the phrase might have originated there.

All of the early known citations of the phrase are American. It dates from the early 20th century - the earliest citation that I can find is from the Wisconsin newspaper The Sheboygan Press, December 1929:

"Bill ['Lucky' Bill McKechnie, manager of the Boston Braves] figures he can finish behind the eight ball with any kind of a ball team, so there's no harm in trying out young talent as there's nothing to lose beyond last place."

The precise date of the coining of the phrase isn't known. It is a fact that it appears in print many times in American newspapers from December 1929 onwards. I can find no uses of the phrase prior to that date.

'Behind The Eight Ball' was used in the title of a biography of 'Minnesota Fats' - the stage name of the pool player Rudolph Wanderone. That was rather an optimistic title, as Wanderone was by all accounts a much better self-publicist than ever he was a pool player. He played some televised demonstration matches against Willie Mosconi, who beat him easily.