ESPN on horseracing lingo

[George Thompson]

Those of you who watched the Belmont Stakes saw a feature on the words and phrases in common use taken from horseracing.  In general, piffle, but harmless.
 Still, it opened with the "fact" that when Man O'War was beaten (for the only time in his career) by a horse named "Upset", that gave rise to the sense "an unexpected victory".
A few years ago I posted stuff from the NYTimes online showing that that sense, verb and adjective, was around since the mid-19th C.

GAT

George A. Thompson
Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern Univ. Pr., 1998, but nothing much lately.

----- Original Message -----
From: Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
Date: Tuesday, June 9, 2009 6:52 pm
Subject: hillbillies
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU

> The History Channel tells us, in program about Dublin, that Irish
> Protestants were known as "Billy Boys."  Then, it says, "the word was
> changed to 'hillbillies' and was applied to Irish immigrants to America,"
>
> I kid ye not.
>
> JL
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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