Re: Balls out
Posted by R. Berg on March 28, 2002 In Reply to: Re: Balls out posted by DGW
on March 28, 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.
- Balls to the wall R. Berg 03/28/02
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