[Ads-l] "Basketball" (The Ball) Not in OED

[Shapiro, Fred]

Surprisingly, the OED does not include a subsense for the word "basketball" meaning the ball itself.  The entries for "baseball" and "football" include subsenses for those balls.

Here is the earliest citation I have found in some very cursory research:

1894 Kalamazoo Gazette 29 May 8/1 (Newspapers.com)  This evening a contest, consisting of throwing a basket ball at the basket will be held at the Y. M. C. A. gymnasium.  Each contestant will be allowed five throws.

Fred Shapiro

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