Mine is tow the line rather than toe the line.

I imagine someone as a tugboat–towing the line of what is expected. I like that imagery better than keeping a foot on some fucking line. Plus using toe as a verb is dumb.

What are yours?

  • tal@lemmy.todayEnglish
    36·
    2 days ago

    Not quite what you’re asking for, but when I first heard the phrase “balls to the wall”, I thought that it alluded to testicles. One of the Grand Theft Auto games has some radio audio that uses it satirically in this sense as well (“Lazlow, get your balls to the wall” or something similar).

    https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/balls_to_the_wall

    First attested in the 1960s in the context of aviation, in reference to ball-shaped grips on an aircraft’s engine controls (typically throttle, prop pitch and fuel mixture). Pushing these “balls to the wall” would put the aircraft at maximum thrust.[1][2] Analogous to pedal to the metal. Not related to the term balls-out, which refers to a ball governor on a steam engine.[3] Neither balls-out nor balls to the wall is connected with the vulgar sense of balls (“testicles”) except via folk etymology.

    EDIT: The GTA audio in question (the song itself used the phrase satirically, and the announcer does as well):

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVWwG6RJrLA

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balls_to_the_Wall_(album)

    Balls to the Wall is the fifth studio album by German heavy metal band Accept, released in 1983. It is Accept’s only record to attain Gold certification in the US.[1] The album’s title track became Accept’s signature song and remains a metal anthem and trademark in the genre.