colloq. [Of obscure origin.
Orig. belonging to the slang of American college athletics; not in the Century Dict. 1891 or in Webster 1897; in 1895 the word (as our first quot. shows) seems to have been still current only among college students. Its general colloquial currency, and its extension of application, seems to have begun early in the 20th c. In British use it was at first regarded as mainly a soldiers’ word. It has been conjectured that the word may be a. G. stunde, lit. hour, or a variant of STINT sb.; neither of these suggestions seems impossible. A notion which is app. prevalent in the U.S. is that the word is a variant of STUMP sb.3, but in spite of the remarkable affinity of meaning, etymological connection between the words is very unlikely.]
a. A prescribed item in an athletic competition or display, an ‘event’; a feat undertaken as a defiance in response to a challenge; ‘an act which is striking for the skill, strength, or the like, required to do it; a feat’ (W. Suppl., 1900); something performed as an item in an entertainment, a (theatrical, etc.) ‘turn.’ b. In recent use, An enterprise set on foot with the object of gaining reputation or signal advantage. In soldiers’ language often vaguely: An attack or advance, a ‘push,’ ‘move.’
1895. Dial. Notes (Amer. Dial. Soc.), I. VIII. 400. Stunt (stvnt): one of those convenient words which may be used in almost any connection and the exact meaning of which must be determined largely by the context;… ‘It would be a great stunt to go to a dance without a girl’ (i.e. an unpleasant thing to do). ‘He performed various stunts for the prof.’ (i.e. did things that would win him the professor’s favor, give him a ‘pull’)…. [Editor’s note: Doing stunts is used in N.Y. City by boys in the sense of performing some feat in rivalry,—a long jump for instance,—one boy ‘stumping’ or challenging another.]
1897. Outing, Aug., 140/2. A lamprey fastened upon a bare leg. That boy did more ‘stunts’ in five minutes than he would attempt now for five thousand dollars!
1899. Jesse L. Williams, Stolen Story, etc. 198. If I were you I’d have a mass meeting first, with horse speeches and all the old Fresh-fire stunts, then a parade.
1901. Westm. Gaz., 31 Jan., 10/2. There will be many new ‘stunts’ of a vaudeville nature.
1904. J. A. Riis, Theodore Roosevelt, ii. 29. [At College] he played polo, did athletic stunts with the fellows,… having no end of good times in it.
1905. D. Wallace, Lure of Labrador Wild, vii. 114. That snowshoeing trip would be a great stunt.
1909. Daily Chron., 25 Aug., 1/7. I’ve been in Texas about two years, doing broncho stunts.
1916. Blackw. Mag., April, 482/1. You remember it is time to get up, for there is a ‘stunt on’.
