[Ads-l] "Gentleman's sweep" or "Gentlemen's sweep" (not in OED)

[Laurence Horn]

I was struck by the use of this term (in either the singular or plural possessive form, the two being homophones) in characterizing the recent NBA finals in which the New York Knicks defeated the San Antonio Spurs 4 games to 1 in their best-of-seven series. The Knicks won the first two games in San Antonio, then lost the third game at home before winning the last two.  Sportswriters and columnists and various posters on the web referred to this as a “gentleman’s/gentlemen's sweep”, the idea being that losing one game in the series is the act of gentlemen allowing the inevitably doomed squad to avoid the humiliation of an actual sweep presumably out of courtesy or politeness. In my previous experience, the only time “gentlemen’s sweep” could be applied is when the eventual winners of the series wins the first three games before charitably allowing their opponents to salvage the fourth game (and their dignity) before closing them out. But there’s obviously a looser sense of which I had been unaware in which *any* best of seven series that finishes 4-1 (including the one in which the Allen Iverson-led Philadelphia Sixers won the first game against the Lakers before proceeding to lose the next four) counts as a gentleman’s sweep. And ditto for a best of five finishing 3-1. Do we know when the term originated, in professional basketball, baseball, or elsewhere? 

The OED does have the relevant entry for SWEEP, n. Under I.1.d, but nothing relating to the gentlemanly practice above.  (If it happens in a WNBA series is it a gentleladies’ or gentlewomen’s sweep?) 

LH 
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