A manager in my department at work mentioned I was “balls to the wall” this week. I knew the phrase meant going all-out, full-throttle, etc., but I was curious about the origin of the phrase. Did the phrase really have something to do with male anatomy as I thought? Or was my mind thinking on a high-school level?
Turns out the answer is no to the first question. According to Slate Explainer,
The expression comes from the world of military aviation. In many planes, control sticks are topped with a ball-shaped grip. One such control is the throttle to get maximum power you push it all the way forward, to the front of the cockpit, or firewall (so-called because it prevents an engine fire from reaching the rest of the plane). Another control is the joystick pushing it forward sends a plane into a dive. So, literally pushing the balls to the (fire)wall would put a plane into a maximum-speed dive, and figuratively going balls to the wall is doing something all-out, with maximum effort. The phrase is essentially the aeronautical equivalent of the automotive “pedal to the metal.”
Interesting bit of trivia. But about the second question, pilots go balls to the wall in the cockpit. Turns out the answer is yes.
