these so-called geniuses have all this great information on hand and then they totally miss the boat (you should pardon the expression). take a look at their source material:
†1. One who ‘sweeps’, or takes the whole of, the stakes in a game, etc.; usually fig. one who takes or appropriates everything; from the 15th to the 17th cent. commonly used as a ship's name.
a 1495 Naval Acc. Hen. VII (1896) 159 The Kinges Bark called the Swepestake. 1520 in Lett. & Papers Hen. VIII, III. ii. 1541 To John Hopton, wages of the Swepestake row~barge, and for rigging other ships, 100 l. 1527 Will of J. Piper (Somerset Ho.), My shipp called the Mary Swepestake. 1540 Palsgr. Acolastus biv, Pantolabus signifieth omnia capiens, one that is a swepestake and all is fysshe that commeth to the nette with hym. 1545 in 12th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm. App. vii. 8 The second rancke of the vaunt~ward:—The greate gallye. The Swepstacke. 1593 G. Harvey Pierce's Super. Wks. (Grosart) II. 111 He that will exploit wonderments, and karrie all before him, like a sweepe-stake. 1593 in J. Morris Troubles Cath. Forefathers (1877) 163 The gleaners, as sweepstakes, who raked up without scruple all that whereof the other made some conscience. 1595 Roxb. Ball. (1889) VI. 409 The George-Aloe and the Sweep-stake too. 1632 Brome Novella ii. ii, Shee will runne on the faster.+ She will prove the only Sweep-stake In all the city. 1687 Miege Gt. Fr. Dict., Sweep-stake, He that gets all the Stakes, Celui (ou Celle) qui tire l'Enjeu.
so, one asks oneself: how did we get from a ship's name to winner take all? here's my theory (and this theory is mine, I own it and just made it up):
Pantolabus signifieth omnia capiens, one that is a swepestake and all is fysshe that commeth to the nette with hym.
omnia capiens means roughly to take everything... there is another way to divide this word sweep|stake and that is sweeps|take... and here I submit the 'take' stands for the 'catch' -- sweeps the catch into the hold. well, there it is. that's my theory, and it's mine.
-anne elke
