"upset"

[Jesse Sheidlower]

> I've sometimes heard it claimed that the actual origin of this
> nominal sense, however, is from the unexpected victory of a dark
> horse (I don't know if he was a literal dark horse as well as a
> figurative one) named Upset over Man O' War in the 1919 Sanford
> Stakes at Saratoga--the only race out of 21 he entered in which Man
> O' War was defeated.  This sounds like a folk etymology to me, but I
> couldn't confirm this in the OED, which surprisingly has NO relevant
> entry or cites in its (on-line) listings for "upset".

Unless, of course, you click on the "Additions" tab, and see the entries
that were added to one of the three OED Additions Series volumes
published in 1993 and 1997. If you do this you will see that the OED's
first quote for _upset_ in the 'unexpected victory in sports' sense
dates from 1921, or very much in line, at least dating-wise, with
the putative Sanford Stakes etymology. (However, OED describes it as
"orig. Tennis"; I don't know if that was on the basis of the one cite
or if there's additional evidence.

When my attention was first called to the Man O' War origin, I sent
a note to OED (I was still at RH at the time) to take a look at it.
We're not going to revise this entry in the immediate future so I
doubt anyone has followed up.

Jesse Sheidlower
OED