[Ads-l] U-turn (1907)

[Pete Morris]

Here's a cite that seems to be from 1905-7, caveats apply.

https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/The_Rambler_Magazine/A-EwAQAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=%22u+turn%22&dq=%22u+turn%22&printsec=frontcover

And another from possibly 1912.

https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Motorcycle_Illustrated/3OM_AQAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=drive+%22u+turn%22&dq=drive+%22u+turn%22&printsec=frontcover

A note that all these cites refer to a sharp bend in the road, often 
called a
hairpin bend, rather than the current sense of reversing a vehicle's 
direction
in the width of a road.

While we're on the subject, what's the earliest cite for "hairpin bend" 
?



------ Original Message ------
>From "Ben Zimmer" <bgzimmer at GMAIL.COM>
To ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Date 18/10/2022 01:27:27
Subject U-turn (1907)

>OED3 has "U-turn" from 1915 (entry updated in Mar. 2021).
>
>---
>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.
>---
>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.
>---
>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.
>---
>
>Previously known as a "U-shaped turn" (at least in the "hairpin turn"
>road-racing sense):
>
>---
>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.
>---
>
>--bgz
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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