5-417: Miracle match or miracle game are terms sometimes used to refer to sporting events with highly unexpected outcomes (a significant upset ) or very dramatic finishes. The term may refer to one of the following: Note: a "miracle" name can refer to an entire game, its defining play, or both. Upset (competition) An upset occurs in a competition , frequently in electoral politics or sports , when
10-468: The Washington Post wrote, "One might make all sorts of puns about it being an upset." The name of the horse "Upset" came from the "trouble" or "distress" meaning of the word (as shown by the parallelism of the name of Upset's stablemate, Regret ). Below is a selection of major upsets from a variety of popular sports around the world. It is not meant to be comprehensive, merely representative. Below
15-615: The full-text online search capabilities of The New York Times databases to trace the usage of the verb to upset and the noun upset . The latter was seen in usage as early as 1877. Thompson's research debunked one popular theory of the term's origin, namely that it was first used after the surprising defeat of the horse Man o' War by the racehorse Upset in 1919 (the loss was the only one in Man o' War's career). The term pre-dates that 1919 Thoroughbred race by at least several decades. In its sports coverage immediately following Upset's victory,
20-455: The party popularly expected to win (the "favorite") is defeated by (or, in the case of sports, ties with) an underdog whom the majority expects to lose, defying the conventional wisdom . It is often used in reference to beating the betting odds in sports, or beating the opinion polls in electoral politics. The meaning of the word "upset" has long included "an overthrowing or overturn of ideas, plans, etc." (see OED definition 6b), from which
25-401: The sports definition almost surely derived. "Upset" also once referred to "a curved part of a bridle-bit, fitting over the tongue of the horse", (now the port of a curb bit ), but even though the modern sports meaning of "upset" was first used far more for horse races than for any other competition, there is no evidence of a connection. In 2002, George Thompson, a lexicographic researcher, used
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