sit-in (verb)

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On Mon, 26 Sep 2005 12:42:38 -0400, Laurence Horn wrote:

>>OED has "sit-in" as a noun and adjective going back to 1937, but nothing
>>as a verb.
>
>Not to be picky, but for me (and pace Victor Reisel or his editor)
>the verb would have to be "sat in", sans hyphen.  OK, to be picky.

The earliest example I can find does indeed hyphenate "sat-in":

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1961 _Washington Post_ 10 July B19/1 This pretty well intimidated Negro
troops stationed at Fort Hood until April 22 of this year, when Curtis and
one other Negro soldier again sat-in at Craig's restaurant.
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Also from 1961, the more naturally hyphenated verbal noun, "sitting-in":

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1961 _New York Times_ 18 June 45/2 Indeed, it is manifest in the very fact
that they are coercing people to accept or react to the accomplished fact
of sitting-in at a previously segregated lunch counter or bus terminal.
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1961 _New York Times_ 17 Dec. E10/2 Thousands of young men and women have
been arrested for sitting-in -- and convicted.
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--Ben Zimmer