Glossary entry (derived from question below)
English term or phrase:
"Push the envelope"
English answer:
explanation/origin
Added to glossary by
RHELLER
Oct 8, 2004 14:49
20 yrs ago
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English term
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Works in: English to Spanish, Spanish, Spanish to English, and 1 more.
Push the edge of the envelope...
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Concentration and focus can help you to reach your potential and push the edge of the envelope particularly with chess... Thank you all in advance.
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push the envelope
Bob Sutton writes:
From where do we get the expression "pushing the envelope"?
From aviation jargon, where envelope means 'the known limits of safe performance'. Test pilots often have to take aircraft beyond these limits--flying a plane faster or higher than had been done before--to establish exactly what the planes could do. This was known, by the 1960s, as pushing the envelope.
The phrase was popularized in the mainstream by Tom Wolfe's best-selling novel The Right Stuff (1979). Figurative use of the phrase, meaning 'to stretch the boundaries', dates from the late 1980s.
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Note added at 4 mins (2004-10-08 14:53:33 GMT)
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push your limits (extend/challenge) your limits
From where do we get the expression "pushing the envelope"?
From aviation jargon, where envelope means 'the known limits of safe performance'. Test pilots often have to take aircraft beyond these limits--flying a plane faster or higher than had been done before--to establish exactly what the planes could do. This was known, by the 1960s, as pushing the envelope.
The phrase was popularized in the mainstream by Tom Wolfe's best-selling novel The Right Stuff (1979). Figurative use of the phrase, meaning 'to stretch the boundaries', dates from the late 1980s.
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Note added at 4 mins (2004-10-08 14:53:33 GMT)
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push your limits (extend/challenge) your limits
4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer.
Comment: "Exactly. Thanks a lot, Rita. Take care. "
7 mins
David Russi
United States
United States
Native in English
&
English
United States
30+ years, stopped counting...
Native in: English , Spanish
Works in: English to Spanish, Spanish to English
Related KudoZ points
:
30
find the limits of what is possible
Consider things up to their extreme (until they "no longer fit in the envelope"
7 mins
push the edge of the limits of what can be done
"Envelope" in this case is not something you put a letter in, but a term that developed into normal language from aviation. It is defined by Merriam-Webster as being:
a set of performance limits (as of an aircraft) that may not be safely exceeded; also : the set of operating parameters that exists within these limits
So this means, there is a limit of what is safe, or what is considered possible. "Push the edge of the envelope" means to do something that is almost exceeding the limits (but not quite), something that if it goes much further will enter the zone of "never been done before", which could be amazing. Another example:
X Company is pushing the edge of the envelope in genetic technology. (The company is doing things that are getting close to the limit of what has been done, is raising the limit by doing new things, etc.)
a set of performance limits (as of an aircraft) that may not be safely exceeded; also : the set of operating parameters that exists within these limits
So this means, there is a limit of what is safe, or what is considered possible. "Push the edge of the envelope" means to do something that is almost exceeding the limits (but not quite), something that if it goes much further will enter the zone of "never been done before", which could be amazing. Another example:
X Company is pushing the edge of the envelope in genetic technology. (The company is doing things that are getting close to the limit of what has been done, is raising the limit by doing new things, etc.)
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