Lay-up (1935), Dunk (1936); Love Feast (1856)

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LAY-UP, DUNK

   OED has 1948 for basketball's "lay-up"and 1966 for "dunk."

   29 December 1935, NEW YORK TIMES, pg. 51:
   He fed his team-mate the ball for an easy lay-up shot.

   26 August 1936, NEW YORK TIMES, pg. 26:
   Joe (College) Fortenberry, of course, is the 6-foot-8 center who used to "dunk" baskets for the Oilers and who was the lofty star of the Berlin basketball show.

   31 January 1940, NEWYORK TIMES, pg. 28:
   Now it's perched ten feet above the floor and real big fellows, taking a leap are about to "dunk" the ball through the hoop.  Little fellows have no chance to perform any such tricks.  If they move it beyond "dunking range," so that every player has to shoot upward and rely on the accuracy of his trajectory to score, little fellows will be on a more even footing with the big fellows on the floor.

(Note that I had visited the National Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts, several years ago.  Bob Kurland was credited in its publications with the first dunk...The first dunk occurred in a WNBA game just a few weeks ago--ed.)

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"All you need is love."
--Bill Clinton

   The earliest citation I had before was the piece from THE GUILDED AGE by Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner.  It's clear from NEW YORK TIMES full text that the term was used even before the Civil War.
   A political "love feast" is when, say, in 1994, Rudy Giuliani cuts some deals and says that Mario Cuomo is a great governor and George Pataki is a bum.  It's love!   Then, in 2002, Republicans hold a "love feast."  Giuliani endorses George Pataki for governor, and Andrew Cuomo is a bum.
   It's a funny kind of love.

   31 March 1856, NEW YORK TIMES, pg. 1 breaker:
   A LOVE FEAST.
(The story is about "Mr. Sickles' Democratic Dinner"--ed.)

   26 August 1858, NEW YORK TIMES, pg. 2:
   MR. HEADLEY, one of the principal actors in the "Love Feast," is a gentleman of influence and position among the Americans.

   9 February 1860, NEW YORK TIMES, pg. 5:
   They represent their convocation at Syracuse as "a perfect love feast."
(A convention for women's rights--ed.)

   11 May 1860, NEW YORK TIMES, pg. 1:
   The proceeding attending the nomination of EVERETT were a love feast which healed all.