Re: Reprieve
From Ignominy
Posted by R. Berg on March 29,
2002 In Reply to: Re: Reprieve From
Ignominy posted by Bob on March 29, 2002
: : : : : : : :
: : : : : Has anyne heard the term "balls out"? It is often used in business settings
when a company
: : : : : : : : : : : : : decides to change to a new software
system. To go "balls out" means to install it and use it without
: : : : :
: : : : : : : : worrying about the way we've always done it.
: : : : : : : :
: : : : : Does the term come from the way the pendulum swings all the way out?
:
: : : : : : : : : : : Um. Well. Ahhh. No.
: : : : : : : : : : : To go "balls
out" means to throw caution to the winds and charge full-steam ahead. Without
wanting to be too blunt as to the phrase's provenance, it's something which we
males could do both figuratively *and* literally (though I can't think of any
printable occasions when I'd do the latter), whereas the fairer sex is limited
to doing it figuratively.
: : : : : : : : : : I believe that this expression
originated with the early steam engines whose governors were a pair of spinning
balls, which described a larger and larger circle as the demanded speed, and hence
their rotational speed, increased to control the steam valve and hence the flow
of steam from boiler to pistons.
: : : : : : : : : Ahahahahah. I can actually
call to mind the device you describe - a pair of balls, each mounted at the hinge
point that joins two rods of metal, right? So when the rods are spun around their
vertical axis, the centrifugal force given to the balls causes them to pull out,
thus making the hinges bend? Extremely plausible and actually I really and sincerely
hope you're right on this, because it'll be pricelessly funny if you are.
:
: : : : : : : Tho I can't give you a definitive source, I can confirm that "balls
out" does come from the days of steam engines and their governing devices, just
as Mr Barney says. Mr Fallen and Mr Bob too from the look of it can console themselves
in knowing that their alternative belief is far more popular than the correct
one. And to know this sort of detail about steam engines, you'd have to be kinda
geeky about them too.
: : : : : : : This is a difficult question. Is any documentation
forthcoming to support either possibility? The dictionaries seem to prefer a derivation
from the anatomical balls, but the mechanical-balls story seems believable too.
Apparently the expression is only known from WW II times or so. Does anybody have
an example of an early (or even late) straight-faced use of an adverb "balls out"
referring to that gadget with the balls?
: : : : : : My references don't have
this phrase, but my husband says the device was called a flyball governor and
it used to be common in discussions of feedback loops. (When it spins faster,
it makes the engine slow down.) That might help in searching.
: : : : : It's
said that "balls to the wall" has the same origin as "balls out." I don't have
an authoritative source for this.
: : : : I'd have thought
that "balls to the wall" was far more likely to be of anatomical derivation than
"balls out" - (mind you, I also thought the latter was anatomical). Sheer speculation,
but I had imagined that "balls to the wall" referred to the effect of accelerative
G-Forces squashing a pilot or race car driver back into his seat. Interestingly
enough, I expect there's little doubt that the similar-seeming but presumably
unrelated phrase "to nail someone's balls to the wall" is of anatomical provenance.
:
: : : I see the erudite jury's still out on "balls out". Despite my earlier belief,
the steam engine solution felt like hot favourite as soon as I saw the post -
though you'd think there would be numerous 18th and certainly 19th century references
if this were the case. I wonder if it'll turn out to be a mini 9 yards?
: :
: People, people. The steam engine explanation is clearly one of those "polite"
fabrications somebody invented so as not to offend someone. It doesn't make the
slightest bit of sense: the phrase is about recklessness, about being oblivious
to harm and proceeding without the usual protect-yourself conventions. The flyball
governor is a governor, for goshsakes. It's function is to protect the machine
by slowing it down, to keep it under control and prevent reckless, ungoverned
damage. Here's my theory: This is very much a 9-yardism: John Q. Reckless talks
to his pals about going balls out, investing his life savings in pork belly futures,
when his sainted mother walks into the billiard room. He covers his verbal impropriety
by inventing this steam engine story, and mom repeats it to her friends at the
Canasta game, who perpetuate it because they also buy into cement mixers, kilts,
machine gun belts, or whatever a friend of a friend "knows." Yours cautiously....
:
: Governors do not make engines slow down as their rotation speed increases -
irrespective of the recollections of anybody - rather they represent the engine
speed' and can be adjusted to limit it to a safe maximum. To adjust a governor
to maximum 'ball out", is to set it to deliver the maximum possible power/speed
that the engineer/'adjuster of the governor' believes the engine can deliver this
side of some sort of mechanical failure that may destroy it.
: : Now while
one may respect the erudition of some of the contributors to this forum it is
plainly obvious that none feel any embarrassment whatever at parading their complete
ignorance of scientific or technical matters but would feel mortified if they
misquoted the words of some long dead second rate poet - strange old world don't
you think?
: You're working very hard to make this phrase technical and scientific,
but it's not convincing. Let's line up the last thousand people to use the phrase
"balls out" and compare what percentage are conversant with antique steam engine
technology versus what percentage are conversant with testicles. That's current
usage and meaning, one might object, but surely the origin of the phrase comes
from those days of yore when flyball governors were everywhere, and testicles
had not yet been invented. Let's look at it again: if a governor exists to adjust
an engine speed to "limit it to a safe maximum," that's hardly the meaning one
intends to communicate with the phrase. The reason a golf cart has a governor
is to prevent it from going over 15 miles per hour. It can be adjusted, of course,
for a course. If it lacked a governor, some reckless, testosterone-poisoned operators
would drive much too fast for conditions, even on hillsides, so their clubs would
bounce, and their balls would fall out.
Not to mention the discomfort caused
to any poor boobs who happened to be traveling with them.
A flyball governor
does too regulate engine speed: see link (http://www.eagleridgetech.com/sloan_on_flyball_governor.html).
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