"upset"

[Laurence Horn]

Wonderful post, George.  My hat's off.

At 4:15 PM -0500 3/4/02, George Thompson wrote:
>Well, reports of my dropping out of this coven have so far proved to be
>greatly exaggerated.  But I will have to do so, because I have to set
>up an automatic reply on my email, and can't have you folks receive a
>daily statement that I am on sabbatical.  It would be too much like
>gloating.  But it's just as well that I didn't get around to pulling
>the plug until the question of Man o' War and Upset came up.
>
>Larry Horn observes "I'd (gingerly) wager that the view of Upset's 1919
>win as a huge upset is largely through hindsight", Man o' War not
>having raced enough before his loss to Upset to have established the
>reputation he later enjoyed as the greatest horse in living memory.

Good thing I was only wagering gingerly!  Nevertheless...


>These accounts of the race suggest that the word "upset" was not
>familiar in the sense of "unexpected victory or loss" before this
>event.  The World stated: "One might make all sorts of puns about it
>being an upset, but Man o' War in the opinion of nine out of ten
>observers was far the better colt in the race. . . .  (August 14, 1919,
>p. 11, col. 1)  The pun did not occur to the reporters from the Tribune
>or the Times.  It occurred to the reporter for The Sun also: "Upset's
>victory was a big upset to all racegoers, even his famous trainer,
>James Rowe"; and "Golden Broom caused more than an upset", but he seems
>to have been thinking of "upset" as in "distress", for instance "upset
>stomach".

It seems clear to me from both the World's and the Sun's reports (not
the one regarding Golden Broom, which I grant has a different sense,
but the one about Upset) that the meaning 'unexpected victory by an
underdog' must have already been established by the time Upset won
the Sanford.  It certainly seems likely that the victory by Upset
(even if he somehow looked less impressive in winning than Man O' War
did in finishing second) helped give currency to the relevant sense
of the noun, but it seems equally clear from George's evidence that
the sense predated it.  I don't see how the Tribune and Times
reporters' failing to make the pun cancels out the two cites you give
above.  Perhaps this sense wasn't widely familiar before then, but it
must have been extant.

larry