can anybody tell about the term "sweepstake" - origins, geographic usage etc.
It is generally conceded that the original sense was “winner take all,” that is, that the person winning the race or game “swept” all the “stakes” into his own pocket. Later the winnings did not accrue entirely to a single winner, ... and still later the term became applied to the event occasioning the wagering ... rather than to the disposition of the spoils. Curiously, though, Sweepstake (also spelled Swepestake) is recorded as used as a ship’s name at least a hundred years earlier than its first recorded use in the gambling sense, but without any sound clue as to the reason for its choice as a nautical term.
-- from Horsefeathers & Other Curious Words, Charles Funk
Accord, Origins A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English , Eric Partridge, and Etymological Dictionary, W W Skeat, who also notes: sweep-stake, the same as swoop-stake, sweeping off all the stakes at once, Hamlet, iv. 5. 142, whence sweep-stakes, sb., the whole money staked at a horse-race that can be won or swept up at once.
