"balls to the wall"

Mon Feb 13 00:11:07 UTC 2006

Post-final thoughts:

  2004 Roger Paul Huff _Captain Bucko's Nauti-Words Handbook_ (N.p.: iUniverse) 8 : _Balls to the wall_ ...originally referred to the design of early meachanical engine governors that spun metal balls in a growing circle as the engine speed increased. The phrase, "balls to the wall," was simply used to denote maximum speed.  But that was what you were already thinking, right ?

  Right.--ed.

  2004 John Bassett McCleary _The Hippie Dictionary_ (Berkeley: Ten Speed Press) 37: _Balls to the wall_  to go all out in some effort. Example: "When he drives his car, he goes _balls to the wall_.  My only source indicates this may originally be a surfer term referring to facing a wall of water and exposing oneself to danger. The balls referred to are assumed to be the male testicles.

  Not the female variety.--ed.

  2001 Trever _Cralle Surfin'Ary_ (Berkeley: Ten Speed Press) 39 : _Balls to the wall_ Surfing up against the wall of a huge wave.

  2001 Gary McKay & Greame Nicholas _ Jungle Tracks: Australian Armour in Viet Nam_ 134 : You had to be prepared at times to go "balls to the wall" even though you knew it could be hazardous.

  Old-time tanks may have had ball-grip throttles.--ed.

  2001 R. Alexander & C.W. Sasser _Taking Fire_ (N.Y.: St. Martin's) 6 : It was balls to the wall [for Army helicopter pilots in Vietnam] starting at 5 A.M. every day.

  Or helicopters.--ed.

  2004 [Sally O'Brien & Sarah Andrews] _Lonely Planet Canary Islands_ (Footscray, Vic.: Lonely Planet) 57 : If you're after a boobs out, balls to the wall beachside holiday.

  Something for everyone.--ed.

  2004 Steven C. Stoker _Beyond Aberdeen_ (N.p.: iUniverse, 2004) 428 : _Balls to the wall_--full speed ahead.

  On shipboard.--ed.

  2005 Ben Bova _Powersat_ (N.Y.: Tor, 2005) 115 : I'm going to nail your balls to the wall.

  Enjoy the possibilities....

  JL

Dave Wilton <dave at WILTON.NET> wrote:
  ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Dave Wilton
Subject: Re: "balls to the wall"
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This fits with Korean War-era pilots who have written me claiming they used
the phrase during their military service and knew it to be a reference to
aircraft throttles.

One should check F-86 and Navy F-9 fighters. And the plural "balls" could
indicate a multi-engine plane, like the B-36, B-47, and B-50.

Also, simply looking at one cockpit diagram is not conclusive. All these
planes were produced in a number of models and there could be considerable
variation between them.

-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of
Jesse Sheidlower
Sent: Saturday, February 11, 2006 2:36 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: "balls to the wall"

On Sat, Feb 11, 2006 at 05:24:12PM -0500, douglas at NB.NET wrote:
> > "I doubt the truthfulness of the purported origin of the phrase.
> >
> > 1. No one has ever reported *"going ball to the wall." Even if such a
> > form once existed, the pluralization, especially in the aggressive
> > contexts in which the term is used, strongly implies a testicular
> > reference.
>
> "Ball to the wall" in the appropriate sense *can* be found, although I
> haven't found it early. But there were different controls, including, I
> think, separate throttles for multiple engines in some planes, so the
> pluralization could be primordial.
>
> Assuming Jesse Sheidlower et al. were quoted correctly, though, I would
> assume that the etymology involving aircraft controls has some
> substantiation, some paper trail or at least multiple independent oral
> testimonials. Otherwise it's just a guess, and IMHO would/should have been
> presented as such ... although it looks to me like a pretty good guess at
> a glance. One alternative (less good, IMHO) guess would involve the use of
> "ball to the wall" in baseball.

As I reponded to JEL off-list, I checked whatever I could with
two historians at the National Museum of the U.S. Air
Force. They had not heard the etymology, which I took as a
good sign, as they did not then try to twist the facts to fit
a known story. They said that it was typical to have
ball-shaped grips on control levers of airplanes at the time
(I didn't ask for specifics, though I should have); that it
was typical for more than two such levers (I was curious about
the plurality of "balls") to be involved in making a plane go
fast (certainly the throttle (or throttles), and probably the
joystick, though others as well, depending on the type of
plane (fuel-air mixture, propellor pitch)), always with
forward being faster; that it's typical to call the firewall
the "wall" (and not "dashboard" or "front of the plane").

The early evidence is all from military-aviation sources (with
additional, later oral support). I wasn't able to find any
early supporting evidence from baseball, but I tried.

Certainly I'd change my opinion if other evidence came to
light or the facts changed (no ball-shaped grips, earlier
quotes from non-aviation contexts, etc.).

Jesse Sheidlower
OED

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