Balls to the wall

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How many think that this expression (or its companion "balls out") are testicular references? Wrong, they derive from the mechanical fly-ball speed governor formerly used on engines.

Today has been a feisty day on the old forum due to the termination of one POS Timothy McVeigh so I thought I'd introduce a more inocuous subject, The Origin of Expressions. All of us use vernacular expressions that have no literal meaning. Usually these have some basis in history, often maritime or agricultural. They must drive foreigners bonkers. "Balls out", huh?

Speaking of balls, I couldn't find the origin of "the whole ball of wax".

-- Lars (larsguy@yahoo.com), June 11, 2001

Answers

THE WHOLE BALL OF WAX---Everything included.---"She got the whole ball of wax."---Old English law.

The division of land in an estate. Parcels of land or property were written on a small piece of paper and wrapped in a ball of wax. The balls of wax were placed in a hat and each heir took a ball of wax and his parcel was described within. Being the only heir you received the whole ball of wax.

LINK

-- (here@you.go), June 11, 2001.


Interesting, as I look at "balls to the wall", I see it is actually different from "balls out" (which this site does not explain). "Balls out" came from the fly-ball speed governor on steam engines. The governor was a cantrifugal device driven by the steam engine. As the engine went faster, the balls on the governor were driven "out" by centrifugal force. The further out they went, the more they closed a valve that admitted steam to the pistons. So the engine's speed controlled itself. "Balls out" was the max speed.

A teenage boy going "balls out" has nothing to do with testosterone.

-- Lars (larsguy@yahoo.com), June 11, 2001.


Here you go--

Thanks, I was looking under "B".

-- Lars (larsguy@yahoo.com), June 11, 2001.


Here's one that might not be known those under 40. What is a "vapor lock". Hint, it is not a brain fart.

-- Lars (larsguy@yahoo.com), June 11, 2001.

How about "basket case"? Since a basket case is a person that is a wreck, I'll guess that in days of old, persons of high disability were literally transported in baskets, ie they were "basket cases".

-- Lars (larsguy@yahoo.com), June 11, 2001.


Lars, when I was a kid my neighbor died from cancer and the undertaker carried him out in a basket shaped like a mummy case. He was very emaciated and probably had withered down to below a 100 lbs. That may be where basket case comes from.

-- Marg (okay@cutaway.com), June 11, 2001.

About that "vapor lock" - does being over 40 disqualify me from answering, because I damn well remember vapor lock and it was no picnic to get it set to rights, believe you me. Doesn't anybody here work on jalopies?

-- Miserable SOB (misery@misery.com), June 11, 2001.

40 YEARS? You are over 40 years OLD? I've never met someone that old.

-- is there life (after@high.school?), June 11, 2001.

Vapor-lock began to fade away an the 80s when pressurized electronic fuel injection systems replaced carburetors.

-- Lars (larsguy@yahoo.com), June 12, 2001.

Marg you are so full of shit. Your damn eyes are brown.

-- (marg@is.fulloshit), June 13, 2001.


Marge--

Your brown eyes are lovely

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The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000. basket case

NOUN:

1. Slang One that is in a completely hopeless or useless condition: “He immediately becomes a psychological basket case, embittered to the point of craziness” (New York). “After World War I, when the Hapsburg empire was split up, little Austria seemed a basket case” (Paul A. Samuelson).

2. Offensive Slang A person, especially a soldier, who has had all four limbs amputated. OUR LIVING LANGUAGE:

In popular usage basket case refers to someone in a hopeless mental condition, but in origin it had a physical meaning. In the grim slang of the British army during World War I, it referred to a quadruple amputee. This is one of several expressions that first became popular in World War I, or that entered American army slang from British English at that time. Some of these words reflect technical inventions and innovations of the time, such as parachute, blimp, tank, and bomber, and still have clear military associations. Others have lost most or all of their military connotations, such as ace, chow, slacker, and dud.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

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-- Lars (larsguy@yahoo.com), June 13, 2001.


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