the over-under is....

[Garson O'Toole]

Here is an instance of "over-under" in 1976. The sportswriter thought
it would be a novel term to some of his readers.

Cite: 1976 March 13, Cleveland Plain Dealer, Notes off the cuff by Hal
Lebovitz,  Section: Sports, Start Page 1-C, Quote Page 6-C, Column 2,
Cleveland, Ohio. (GenealogyBank)

[Begin excerpt]
In case you didn't know, one of the pro basketball betting gimmicks is
the "over-under" wager. Instead of betting on a certain team, you bet
on the total points the two teams combined will score.
[End excerpt]

Garson

On Wed, Apr 18, 2012 at 11:50 AM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: the over-under is....
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> It's been used for a while now in contexts like the one you mention below, e.g. taking the under for whether a celebrity marriage (often although not always involving some random Kardashian) will last longer than a certain estimated number of days.  I agree that there's often a clear connection with sports commentary, so I'd guess this is more likely to appear on PTI ("Pardon the Interruption" on ESPN, a commentary show co-hosted by Michael Wilbon and the below-mentioned Kornheiser) than on a gossip show with no sports connection.
>
> LH
>
> On Apr 18, 2012, at 11:30 AM, George Thompson wrote:
>
>> "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.
>>
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