Deke (1935)

[Laurence Horn]

At 8:07 AM -0400 9/25/01, Dennis R. Preston wrote:
>I am perhaps coming to this discussion late and I apologize if this
>information has already been given, but when I frequented the
>Hamilton (Ontario) area in the late 60's, "deke" was not exclusively
>used in hockey (if that is the game described above - hard for a
>Louisvillian to tell). It meant any slight direction change. For
>example, I got instructions from a local one day to "go down this
>road a bit and then deke left," the kind of little turn you make when
>there's a "jog" in the road.
>
>dInIs
I agree that by the late 60's a deke could be any feinting move of
this sort, whether or not the deker intended to deceive the dekee (as
in the hockey/basketball/football/baseball/boxing examples) or simply
for the "slight direction change" where it might be argued the road
(designer) was trying to deke you (out).  But if the derivation from
"decoy" is right, it would make sense that the earliest uses would be
from the sporting world (including the hunting examples where the
dekees are ducks).  I don't know if there are any examples of deke as
a verb in the hunting context, though.

larry