Etymology corner
Image: F-104A flight envelope (public domain)
Welcome to an occasional feature of the Red Pony Express that will uncover the murky origins of mysterious phrases that have entered everyday idiom but which do not immediately betray their origins.
This month: pushing the envelope, which means to exceed or extend the boundaries of the possible (or indeed, the permissible).
I’ve long hated this phrase, but have never been entirely sure why. Partly it’s because it seems so absurd—why is a humble piece of stationery being dragooned into the metaphorical service of vigorous and often transgressive activities? Why?? And why do people use it so frequently yet clearly have no idea what it means?
It was with some relief that I discovered the envelope in question refers not to stationery at all but to the mathematical construct of the ‘flight envelope’ of an aircraft. It refers to a matrix of factors (speed, altitude, range, etc.) that describe the capacity of the aircraft to withstand stress. The phrase was popularised by that white-suited latter-day dandy, Thomas Wolfe, in ‘The Right Stuff’.
In the context of test pilots flying experimental fighter aircraft (often to their deaths), it seems like a phrase equivalent to the task.
But when it’s employed to describe an actor swearing on television, it might be time to search for a less ambitious alternative.
