Query: the expression "hands down"

[Stephen Goranson]

Earlier, also from horse races:

MANCHESTER RACES
Bell's Life in London and Sporting Chronicle (London, England), Sunday, June 17,
1832; Issue 363. Category: News [Gale]
...Independence...won with hands down.

EPSOM SPRING MEETING
Bell's Life in London and Sporting Chronicle (London, England), Sunday, April
18, 1858.
...the French mare...came out with a clear lead, and won in the commonest of
canters--"hands down"--by two lengths.

Stephen Goranson
http://www.duke.edu/~goranson


Quoting "Douglas G. Wilson" <douglas at NB.NET>:

> Sam Clements wrote:
>> OED, 1867.
>> h. hands down: with ease, with little or no effort; unconditionally,
>> submissively; orig. in the racing phr. to win hands down, referring to
>> the
>> jockey dropping his hands, and so relaxing his hold on the reins, when
>> victory appears certain.
>>
>> Sam Clements
>>
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: "Cohen, Gerald Leonard" <gcohen at MST.EDU>
>> To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Sent: Friday, March 21, 2008 9:57 PM
>> Subject: Query: the expression "hands down"
>>
>>
>>> Today a student asked me the origin of the expression "hands down,"
>>> as in
>>> "He won hands down," and I didn't have a good answer.  Would anyone
>>> perhaps know what the original context might have been?  In what sort
>>> of a
>>> contest would one literally win "hands down"?
>>>
>>> Gerald Cohen
>
> One can also win "in a walk" ... or "in a canter" ... or "in a walk,
> hands down" ... or "in a canter, hands down": examples of the last:
>
> [1862]
>
>
http://books.google.com/books?id=UDVKAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA247&dq=%22canter+hands+down%22&lr=&as_brr=3
>
> [1873]
>
>
http://books.google.com/books?id=RkUFAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA230&dq=%22canter+hands+down%22&lr=&as_brr=3
>
> [1881]
>
>
http://books.google.com/books?id=qwUCAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA347&dq=%22canter+hands+down%22&lr=&as_brr=3
>
> [1887]
>
>
http://books.google.com/books?id=TUIFAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA43&dq=%22canter+hands+down%22&lr=&as_brr=3
>
> The inept (IMHO) alternative "lose hands down" is more recent; there is
> even the occasional "lose in a canter".
>
> -- Doug Wilson
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org