[Ads-l] U-turn (1907)

[Ben Zimmer]

OED3 has "U-turn" from 1915 (entry updated in Mar. 2021).

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https://books.google.com/books?id=M4lCAAAAYAAJ
Claude Goodman Johnson, _Roads Made Easy by Picture and Pen, Vol. 1_ (1907)
p. 136:
And the Maidstone Road is easily joined by proceeding on leaving either
hotel in the same direction as that of arrival there for a few yards, then
making a U turn to the left and bearing right down a narrow leafy lane.
p. 143:
At the bottom where there is a triangular shrub enclosure take a U turn.
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https://www.newspapers.com/clip/111492050/u-turn/
Evening Record (Hackensack, NJ), Nov. 13, 1909, p. 1, col. 1
There are also three difficult turns, one a double "S" and another a "U"
turn, while half way up the grade a walled drain in the center of the
course gives drivers an alternative of a sweeping roadway on either side.
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https://books.google.com/books?id=qn0WPzp4gv8C&pg=RA18-PA17
Harper's Weekly, June 4, 1910, p. 17
"The Turn in Racing" by Herbert Lytle
In making the U turn the same rule is still applied. The car is turned
slightly from its course, then brought about and pointed directly for the
corner of the turn (Fig. 6), continuing in this way until the car assumes
its new course.
Fig. 6 - The correct method of making a U turn.
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Previously known as a "U-shaped turn" (at least in the "hairpin turn"
road-racing sense):

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https://www.newspapers.com/clip/111483119/u-shaped-turn/
New York Times, Nov. 27, 1903, p. 1, col. 3
The road is almost straight until about a quarter of a mile from the start,
where there is a short double curve followed at the extreme top by a
U-shaped turn which proves very trying to all ascending vehicles.
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--bgz

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