the over-under is....

[George Thompson]

"Over-under" is a sports gambling term seemingly not in the recently
revised "O" section of the OED.  It is a common betting proposition in
football: the Pope of bookmakers sets a number, and the suckers bet on
whether the final score of the two teams, combined, in the game will
be over or under that number.  In making the bet, the sucker takes the
over or the under.

It has passed from referring to a literal betting proposition to a
figurative sense.

Searching the Proquest newspapers for "over under" turned out to be
unprofitable, since that sequence in other contexts is far more common
than I would have thought.
Searching for "over under is" takes it back to September 24, 1979, in
the Chicago Tribune:
"Latest line.  Favorite Dallas, Points 3 Underdog Cleveland.
Over-Under: 39  Over-Under is the betting line on the total number of
points scored by the two teams in the game, over or under the line
figure."
In the LA Times, December 28, 1980, Jim Murray made plans to teach his
new granddaughter that "over-under is a sucker bet", along with a
number of other bits of no doubt hard-earned wisdom.
By 1987, Tony Kornheiser was using it in other contexts, as for
instance, the Washington Redskins line coach favors very big men, with
300 lbs as the over-under.  (not a verbatim quote).

A report in the NYTimes Business Section today marks the first time I
have noticed this expression in the mouth (or from the fingers) of
someone not a sportswriter.  The first time noticed in the NYTimes,
too, for that matter: I have mainly encountered it in the sports
section of the [NY] Daily News.
>From a story about Warren Buffett's announcement that he has developed
prostate cancer: "“Go to any actuarial table; a healthy, stress-free
81-year-old has a 12-year life expectancy, and I’ll take the over on
that,” said Whitney Tilson, the managing partner at T2 Partners and a
Berkshire shareholder."  (NYTimes, April 18, 2012, B Section, p. 1,
col. 6)

No doubt the old wisecrack regarding an ill-matched marriage, "I give
it six months" is now, in some circle, being expressed as "I put the
over-under at six months".

GAT

George A. Thompson
Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern
Univ. Pr., 1998, but nothing much lately.  Working on a new edition,
though.

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