Another word that keeps popping up in our reading of Paul Scott’s Raj Quartet (see this post) is gymkhana, and eventually I thought to investigate it, since I was fuzzy about both meaning and etymology. Wiktionary says:
From Hindustani گیند خانہ (gendxānā) / गेंदख़ाना (gendxānā, “racquet court”), from گیند / गेंद (gend, “ball”) + خانہ / ख़ाना (xānā, “court”). Influenced by gymnastics and gymnasium.
I’ve probably learned that before, but the fake gymnastics connection makes it hard to remember the true origin! And I think the Raj-related meaning is better explained in the OED entry (from 1900):
Originally Anglo-Indian.
‘A place of public resort at a station, where the needful facilities for athletics and games of sorts are provided’ (Y.). Hence (esp. in European use), an athletic sports display. Now spec. a meeting at which horses and their riders take part in games and contests; also a competition designed to test driving skill. Also attributive, as gymkhana club, gymkhana meeting.
1861 [‘The first use of it that we can trace is (on the authority of Major John Trotter) at Rurki in 1861, when a gymkhana was instituted there’.—Y.]
1877 Their proposals are that the Cricket Club should include in their programme the games, etc., proposed by the promoters of a gymkhana Club.
Pioneer Mail 3 November
[…]
I was surprised the first citation was so late; I’ve antedated it to 1854 (“The Gymkhana opens to-morrow, and a goodly meet is expected to take place, weather permitting”), but I got discouraged from trying to take it further back because the metadata on the alleged pre-1860 hits at Google Books is so terrible.
For comparatively early evidence of the automotive sort of gymkhana I recommend the article “Sports Cars Have a Field Day” in the May 1953 issue of _Popular Mechanics_. I remember reading about such gymkhanas circa 1976 in an old book about sports cars that belonged to my father and was probably published at roughly the same time he had bought his ’57 TR-3 (which was ’60 or ’61 – he didn’t get it new). I think it may have already been a bit archaic by ’76 in US sports-car parlance.
ETA: Relevant claimed origin story from wikipedia: “The origin of motorsport gymkhana is not certain. However, it is speculated that it might have begun after World War 2, when American soldiers brought home small and nimble cars from Europe. The smaller cars designed for dense European cities could not compete in races against American cars meant for open countryside, so new events were designed for them involving skillful maneuvering through complex courses. This soon evolved into the American form of autocross.”
I know gymkhana well, but only in the horsy sense. A gymkhana with motor cars provokes an amusing mental image.
Here’s some footage (grainy super 8, no audio) of sport-car gymkhana shot in 1962 in Minnesota: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ceq7ZaCv8FA
Oh and this longer thing on gymkhanas open only to Chevrolet Corvairs (“unsafe at any speed,” said the haters) has a discussion on “what is a gymkhana” starting around 1:50. The dudes talking are extremely “square” in their hairstyle and dress (a glimpse of the lost world that was destroyed as soon as the goddam Beatles turned up on the Ed Sullivan Show) but they presumably liked doing wacky things in their Corvairs.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0v53DQFISc