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Come Fly With Me: 9 Common Words with Aviation Origins

New Wright Military Aeroplane (LOC)

Earlier this week was National Aviation Day, which celebrates the field of aviation and the birthday of airplane innovator Orville Wright. Inspired by this we decided to explore some common words and idioms that you may not know have their roots in flying.

ahead of the curve

“In ‘Insider Baseball,’ her shrewd, funny account of those primaries that is ahead of the curve and galvanized by disgust, Didion would foresee the trivialization and manipulatability of America’s political process to come.”

Sarah Kerr, “The Unclosed Circle,” The New York Review of Books, April 26, 2007

The earliest reported usage of the idiom ahead of the curve, meaning changing before competitors or performing well in general, is from 1926, according to the Oxford English Dictionary (OED). The phrase may derive “from the mathematics of flight,” according to World Wide Words, and is also written as ahead of the power curve.

flak

“The Hold Steady always caught flak for being a mock bar band, but somewhere along the way it became an actual bar band.”

August Brown, “Album Reviews,” Los Angeles Times, May 4, 2010

Flak, meaning “excessive or abusive criticism or “dissension; opposition,” originally referred to antiaircraft artillery. This latter meaning originated around 1938, coming from the German Flak, which was “condensed from Fliegerabwehrkanone, literally ‘pilot warding-off cannon.’”

The figurative meaning of flak came about around 1968, according to the OED. A flak catcher is “a slick spokesperson who can turn any criticism to the advantage of their employer.” This U.S. colloquialism originated around 1970, says the OED.

gremlin

“While the computer network was fixed by 1.50pm, the gremlin wasn’t found, leaving open the possibility of a repeat performance on any given weekday – when up to 950,000 commuters could be thrown into chaos.”

Joseph Kerr, “CityRail Gremlin Could Strike Any Day,” The Sydney Morning Herald, May 3, 2004

The word gremlin originated as Royal Air Force slang, says the OED, and has been in use since at least 1941. Pilots jokingly attributed inexplicable aircraft mishaps to this mischievous sprite, which later came to embody any type of mischief.

The word may be a combination of the Old English gremman, “to anger, vex,” and the –lin of goblin, or it may come from the Irish gruaimin, “bad-tempered little fellow.”

In the early 1960s, gremlin gained the meaning of “a trouble-maker who frequents the beaches but does not surf,” as per the OED. It was also the (unfortunate) name of a car from the 1970s and a popular movie from the 1980s.

lighter-than-air

“‘Lighter than air,’ said the promotional material for the laptop, which like the Macbook Air has a 13.3-inch screen but which at 1.27 kilograms is 90 grams lighter. That difference is roughly the weight of a cell phone.”

Martyn Williams, “Samsung’s X360: Lighter Than Air — but Not Thinner,” PCWorld, September 5, 2008

The phrase lighter than air, now used figuratively to describe everything from clothes to laptops to frog-leg raviolis, originally referred to lighter-than-air aircraft, which “flies because it weighs less than the air it displaces.” This meaning originated in the 1880s, says the OED.

panic button

“The head coach of the U.S. track and field team said Friday it’s too soon to ‘push the panic button’ over America’s early reversals  on the Olympic Games.”

“No Panic Button Yet,” The Milwaukee Sentinel, September 3, 1960

Panic button is slang for “a signal for a hasty emotional response to an emergency.” This figurative sense is from the 1950s and seems to have originated as U.S. Air Force slang, says the OED.

World Wide Words cites a “jokey guide” from 1950 that describes that panic button as “state of emergency when the pilot mentally pushes buttons and switches in all directions.” During the Korean War, pilots who “bailed out at the first sign of action” were disparagingly referred to “as panic-button boys.”

The origin of the panic button may “have been the bell system in the Second World War bombers (B-17, B-24) for emergency procedures such as bailout and ditching, an emergency bell system that was central in the experience of most Air Force pilots.”

push the envelope

“Actor Bob Gerics, who plays Ben in Forest for the Trees, said the company wanted to be able to push the envelope with the show and felt they could do that best in a new venue.”

Kathy Rumleski, “U.S. Playwrights Push the Envelope,” The London Free Press, June 21, 2010

To push the envelope means “to go beyond established limits; to pioneer,” and the envelope here is mathematical, specifically “a curve or surface that is tangent to every one of a family of curves or surfaces.” The flight envelope, as per Cracked, is “the particular combination of speed, height, stress and other aeronautical factors that form the bounds of safe operation.” To go beyond that, or to push that envelope, is both dangerous and, some would argue, pioneering.

According to the OED, the phrase was popularized by Tom Wolfe’s The Right Stuff.

seat-of-the-pants

“Charismatic, unpretentious, always positive, Couples eschews any kind of deeply thought-out system. Instead he’s a seat-of-the-pants American pragmatist, trying to make things work, lead his team to victory, by muddling through.”

John Paul Newport, “Majesty at Royal Melbourne,” Wall Street Journal, November 19, 2011

Seat-of-the-pants describes something done by intuition or trial and error rather than through careful planning. According to the OED, this phrase originated in the mid-1930s or sooner, referring to “fog-bound pilots without instruments [who] soon learned to tell whether they were flying right-side-up by the pressure against their parachute packs.”

wingman

“Yes, he sounds like a superhero. But ‘Wingman’ is something else entirely. . . . He befriends the BFF, runs interference, breaks the ice, buys drinks. He’s not supposed to win the girl himself.”

John Anderson, “Carrell Has Wingman in ‘Crazy Stupid Love,’” Newsday, July 22, 2011

The modern sense of wingman refers to someone who lends support to a friend trying to attract a love interest. The original meaning, “a pilot whose plane is positioned behind and outside the leader in a formation of flying aircraft,” came about in the early 1940s while the figurative use is from 2006, according to the Online Etymology Dictionary.

However, we found some figurative uses of wingman from before 2006, for instance from August 2004: “Senator John McCain was serving as President Bush’s wingman today as he joined the president for a swing through the Florida Panhandle,” although the only courting here is for votes. This romantic usage is from December 2004: “Those who ride shotgun in the dating world, acting as a wingman or wingwoman, discover there are singles willing to pay for their services.”

If you can find an earlier citation, let us know!

zoom

“Five Russian fighter planes zoomed into Britain’s Berlin-to-Hamburg air corridor Tuesday, the British announced last night.”

“Five Red Fighter Planes Zoom into British Air Lane,” Meriden Record, July 8, 1948

The word zoom meaning “to make a continuous low-pitched buzzing or humming sound” has been around since the late 19th century. However, the word gained popularity around 1917 “as aviators began to use it,” says the Online Etymology Dictionary.

[Photo: No copyright restrictions, The Library of Congress]

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We Like Big Back-Formations

American White Pelican (Pelecanus erythrorhynchos ) (bird) in Mo

Inspired by our list of the day, Baby Got Back-Formations, which was in turn inspired by the posteriophile, Sir Mix-a-Lot, we’ve gathered here eight common words you might not have known are back-formations, that is, shortened versions of sometimes-obsolete longer words.

berserk

“A young Corapolis man who went berserk at a Christmas party in his own home because the victim early yesterday morning when he decided to shoot it out with police who came to quiet him.”

“Berserk Host Is Wounded In Duel With Cops,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, December 27, 1950

The word berserk refers to differing degrees of craziness, from “frenetically violent” to “mentally or emotionally upset” to “unrestrained, as with enthusiasm or appetite.”

It’s also a back-formation of berserker, “one of a band of ancient Norse warriors legendary for their savagery and reckless frenzy in battle.” The word was introduced by Scottish author, Sir Walter Scott and comes from the Old Norse ber, “bear,” plus serkr, “shirt,” which together mean “a warrior clothed in bearskin.”

bum

“There are no bums among them. The statements that have been sent out about their being tramps and all that sort of thing are untrue.”

“Claim They Are Not Bums,” The Lewiston Daily Sun, April 21, 1894

The word bum meaning tramp, vagrant, or loafer, has been around since around 1864, says the Online Etymology Dictionary. It comes from bummer, an older word with the same meaning, which in turn ultimately comes from the German bummeln, “go slowly, waste time.”

Bummer meaning an adverse reaction to a drug or something depressing or frustrating is from the late 1960s. Bum meaning “buttocks,” in case you were wondering, originated in the 14th century. The word could be onomatopoeic, says the Oxford English Dictionary, “with the general sense of ‘protuberance, swelling’.”

gab

“That gift of gab for which wives have been blamed, and rarely praised, over the years, is coming in mighty handy to the men candidates in current congressional campaigns.”

Dorothy McCardle, “In Fall Political Campaigns,” The Miami News, October 14, 1954

The origin of gab, meaning to talk a lot, is a kind of back-and-forth formation. It came about in 1786, probably as a shortening of gabble, which has the same meaning. Gabble originated 200 years earlier as a frequentive of gab meaning “to reproach.”

pea

“When we were eager to cook, a ham bone tucked away in the freezer inspired a pot of pea soup.”

“Split Pea Soup with a Twist,” Chicago Tribune, February 24, 2010

The word pea is what’s called a false singular. A false singular is formed when a word that ends in an s or z is wrongly thought to be plural, and an alteration of the word thought to be singular is made. The misinterpreted plural in this case was the Middle English pease.

Pease Porridge Hot is a nursery rhyme that originated around 1760. Pease here is treated as a mass noun.

mesmerize

“Seated across the table, at the police station, the Hindu philosopher gazed dreamily into the eyes of Chief Quigg in an effort to mesmerize him, but the hypnotic influences were sharply interrupted when the chief ordered him to stop.”

“Yogi’s Effort at Hypnotizing,” The Miami News, February 2, 1928

Mesmerize, meaning to enthrall or hypnotize, was formed from mesmerism, which while now refers to fascination in general originally referred to hypnotism, specifically the early 19th century “doctrine that one person can exercise influence over the will and nervous system of another.” Mesmerism was named for its creator, Franz Mesmer, a German physician.

sherry

“The landlord allowed himself to be dissuaded, and, after a glass or two of ale, confessed that sherry was a sickly disagreeable drink, and that he had merely been in the habit of taking it from an idea he had that it was genteel.”

George Borrow, The Romany Rye: A Sequel to ‘Lavengro’

Sherry, a fortified Spanish wine, is another false singular. The original word was the Middle English sherris, which comes from the Spanish (vino de) Xeres, or “wine of Xeres.” Xeres is now commonly known as Jerez.

sidekick

“The best ball player that ever crawled into a uniform was Mike Kelly of Paterson, and you still have with you my old sidekick, Jim McCormick.”

“Paterson Is Cool to Billy Sunday,” The New York Times, April 5, 1915

Sidekick, which originated originated in 1906, was originally side-kicker, as popularized by O. Henry in 1904 short story: “Billy was my side-kicker in New York.” According to World Wide Words, side-kicker comes from an even older term, side-partner.

tee

“At the ‘Tee,’ for the first shot, the ball may be placed on a little heap of sand or earth, about 1/4 inch high, known as the ‘Tee’ also.”

“Some Remarks on Golf,” The Grove: A Monthly Miscellany, November 1891

Another false singular! The golf tee comes from the Scottish teaz. Although the origin of teaz is unknown, the original form was “a little heap of sand.”

waft

“There came in with the man a kind of waft of the sea as he threw off his great-coat and clattered his cutlass in a corner–a fine figure of a man, towering up to the rafters, and his voice held in as though it would be more comfortable to hurl an order in the teeth of a gale.”

John Sillars, The McBrides: A Romance of Arran

The word waft, to cause to go smoothly over water or to float gently, is a back-formation as well. It comes from wafter, an “armed convoy or escort ship.” Wafter ultimately comes from the Middle Low German wachter, “a guard.”

This list is nowhere near complete. Again, check out our list of the day for even more back-formations.

[Photo: CC BY 2.0 by Mike Baird]

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Language Blog Roundup: Grimm linguist, youse, kerfuffle

Brothers Grimm

Brothers Grimm

Welcome to this week’s Language Blog Roundup, in which we bring you the highlights from our favorite language blogs and the latest in word news and culture.

In language news, NPR discussed what makes something a “new” language. France gained their own word for binge drinking. In Quebec, a teen who was told by the government that the name of his company, Wellarc, was “too English,” took his complaints to YouTube. Flavorwire told us why they think the new black is an especially irritating cliche.

We learned that one of the Brothers Grimm was a pioneering linguist, what words Bing and Google ban from their autocomplete suggestions, and that while Twitter is available in 33 languages, its universal language is the emoji. This week we also found out how to teach language to dogs and how to learn English through aerobics.

Inspired by Google’s Chromecast, Megan Graber provided seven theories behind the origin of the word dongle. Ben Zimmer gave us the history of the word drone. Robert Lane Greene delved into when the phrase chink in one’s armour might be offensive, while New York Magazine explored female insults.

Jan Freeman considered various spellings of youse while Arika Okrent clarified the different spellings of the surname Weiner. Arika also revealed 12 onomatopoeias from around the world and the grammar rules behind three commonly disparaged dialects.

The Dialect Blog blogged on regionally “corrupted” names, the language of the “The Troubles,” and the accents of the “princesses” of Long Island.

Victor Mair spelled out Chinese spelling bees and character amnesia. James Harbeck rounded up a brief history of royal baby names while at Lingua Franca, Ben Yagoda offered his own take on royal baby words. Anne Curzan had fun with kerfuffle and Constance Hale looked at parataxis.

Fritinancy compared smiles and pouts, and for words of the week, chose chindōgu, a Japanese term for “the art of the ‘unuseless’ idea,” and DPO, direct public offering. World Wide Words explored the origin of wonk.

Word Spy spotted the Matilda effect, “the systematic under-recognition of the contributions of women to science,” named for 19th century American suffragist Matilda J. Gage; phubbing, “snubbing another person by using your smartphone instead of interacting with that person”; and fauxductivity, “pretending to work hard; busyness that consists of trivial or unproductive activities.”

We want to attend this ComicCon for Jane Austen fans, to stay at these hotels with libraries, and to begin using these Asian words with no English equivalent. These creative uses of sentence diagramming make us want to diagram sentences.

We love this list 25 websites for literature lovers, this comparison of Walt Whitman and Breaking Bad’s Walter White, and these band names based on television shows. Finally, we were really creeped out by these two-sentence horror stories.

That’s it for this week!

[Photo: CC BY 2.0 by Lucas]