hacker

[Victor Steinbok]

  Joel, I was not disputing the possibility that the nickname is
connected to basketball, but you seem to be stretching a few of these
beyond reasonable interpretation to fit the theory. Perhaps you've
watched or played some games back then and can attest to the
terminology--I can't. Your definition entry is supposedly from 1970--the
game is from 1958.

So let me complete your argument, although Garson has already tracked
"hack" a bit further back. By "complete" I don't mean that I concede the
point--there is simply not enough information, as of now, to know where
that nickname came from. I'm happy to concede the distinct possibility
that it was in response to his playing style.

But take a look at the 1906 NCAA basketball guide:

http://bit.ly/ci1VpS
Spalding's Official Basket Ball Rules. Ed. by George T. Hepbron.
Spalding's Athletic Library No. 280. 1906-7 [Copyright 1906]
[These rules are in effect Spt. 15, 1906]
Rule XI. Section 24. p. 124
> Sec. 24. There shall be no striking, kicking, shouldering, tripping,
> /hacking/ or unnecessary roughness of any kind. The Referee or Umpire
> shall call a foul for violation of this rule. The Referee may, for the
> first offence; and shall for the second offence, disqualify the
> offender for that game and for such further period as the committee in
> charge shall determine; except that disqualification for striking,
> kicking, /hacking/ shall be for one year, except by alteration of
> penalty in any special case by the proper Registration Committee of
> the Amateur Athletic Union or the Governing Committee of the Young
> Men's Christian Association Athletic League. The Referee has power to
> disqualify for violation of this rule whether a foul was called or not.

[emphasis added]

One more thing--before school buses there were school hacks. [Variant of
OED "hack n.3 (a.) 2." for "hackney"] I also found another snippet with
"hack"=="ride", as in "car to drive". In both instances, the meaning is
broader than one in OED.

http://bit.ly/92kjhG

Another "hack" is in "hack-writer", apparently, "writer for hire",
freelancer.

http://bit.ly/d2oRt3
The Independent. February 23, 1914
In Honor of Hégésippe Simon. p. 256/2
> An American encyclopedist once confest in The Independent (April 24,
> 1911) that when he was working as a hack-writer on an encyclopedia he
> prepared a biographical sketch of a fictitious clergyman, the "author
> of the well known hymn, 'Leap, Leap, My Soul,' " and the article was
> past unscathed by department editor, managing editor, and all the
> sub-editors and proof-readers until he pulled it out just as it was
> ready to go to press. If it had once got in it probably would have
> been copied5 by future cyclopedias for the next fifty years. The
> biographical details of the Irish mystic "Fiona Macleod" obligingly
> supplied to the /Atheneum/ by the author of her works, William Sharp,
> are still to be found in books of reference. We may conclude then that
> the Rev. James Owen Hannay, who was the inventor of "George A.
> Birmingham," who was the inventor of "Dr. O'Grady," who was the
> inventor of "Gen. John Regan," did not take an impossibility for the
> plot of his novel and play.




     VS-)

On 7/29/2010 8:06 AM, Joel S. Berson wrote:
> At 7/29/2010 12:11 AM, Victor Steinbok wrote:
>> Six of one, half a dozen of the other. I cannot answer that question
>> definitively, of course, but I would like to note that only a couple of
>> nicknames have "basket-brawl" implications. Some of the rest are
>> variations on the names (Prouncer, Rocky Stocky), but the rest have
>> neither connection.
>
> I think more of the nicknames may have a basketball or sports
> connection, taking off sometimes from the player's name, although of
> course I cannot prove my suppositions:
> Easy Uno = easy one; a foul shot is one point.
> Iron Man = someone with endurance.
> Rocky Stocky
> Waban Wrecker
> Bonus Baby = extra point for foul shot after being fouled in
> act of shooting but making the shot (and there are probably many
> other possibilities).
> Killer = kills his shot (analagous to volleyball), and other
> possibilities.
> Prouncer = pouncer, aggressive on defense.
> The Stilt = ... well, see "Wilt the Stilt".
>
>> For my part, I doubt that this use of the verb
>> "hack" has been around before the 1970s, but there is nothing scientific
>> about this claim.
>
> A very quick look:
>
> Howard Liss, _Basketball Talk for Beginners_, 1970 (GB snippet,
> unverified; dated [1970] by WorldCat).
> "HACK To chop down on a player's wrists or forearms as he attempts to
> shoot for the basket. If the shooter scores, ... not score because of
> the hack, then he is awarded two shots from the free-throw line."
>
> Unfortunately, this is not held by Harvard; the closest to me is in
> Montpelier (CUNY has it, however -- hint, hint).
>
> Joel

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