Push the envelope
'Push the envelope' - WTF? It must have taken a lot of 'blue sky thinking' to come up with that expression.
(userdeath imminent, Wed 14 Apr 2010, 8:53, 9 replies)

i thought "pushing the envelope" was old?
edit:
While “pushing the envelope” (originally in the form “pushing the edge of the envelope”) has probably been in use among test pilots since World War II, it was propelled into general usage by Tom Wolfe’s 1979 book about test pilots and the early US space program, The Right Stuff. The “envelope” being pushed in “pushing the envelope” is a mathematical construct, what is called the “flight envelope” of a given aircraft: combinations of speed and altitude, range and speed, or speed and stress on the aircraft’s frame, that are considered the limits of the plane’s capabilities.

taken from www.word-detective.com/2008/01/16/push-the-envelope/
( weaver., Wed 14 Apr 2010, 9:17, closed)

Yes, some people seem to complain about anything said in the workplace that contains more than 2 syllables per word

( Michael Ellis contributes nothing, Wed 14 Apr 2010, 9:21, closed)

But people who use it now
don't seem to mean "operating at the edge of what the system can do, thus creating a danger of total collapse", they mean "being an opinion leader."

Anyway that doesn't matter, language changes. My problem with it is that people use it almost as a synonym for "good". Like "thinking outside the square", which is often used by employers who actually want someone to follow instructions to the letter.
(apeloverage committed the vile act of onanism on, Wed 14 Apr 2010, 9:29, closed)

It's a bit of a silly phrase for, say, a marketing manager, except used ironically.
or in actual danger scenarios. But I've never met anyone who's used it as a synonym for good in a business environment, only in a vaguely correct sense for striving harder etc. You must have worked with some total fucking idiots, my deepest sympathies.
( the mighty badger Aphrodite, on a bar stool, by your side, Wed 14 Apr 2010, 9:45, closed)

haha this ^ :)

( Michael Ellis contributes nothing, Wed 14 Apr 2010, 9:49, closed)

I'm fairly sure I've seen it in a 1950s book
on experimental aircraft.
( Colonel Boris "...a desperate Buzzfeed imitation...", Wed 14 Apr 2010, 12:50, closed)

It was at one time used in a completely different sense. Thus -
A deal is being set up.
Party X is being hard to convince. Part Y puts an envelope on the table containing an inducement.
Party Y knows that as soon as the party X looks at the envelope, the desire to pick it up increases.
So talk continues, and every so often party Y will nudge the envelope forward.
( Larry Vest One day at a time, sweet Jesus, FFS., Wed 14 Apr 2010, 10:03, closed)

No matter how much you push the envelope
it's still stationery.
(salvadorevincent, Wed 14 Apr 2010, 11:25, closed)

SPANG

( Je suis un vagabond is an unfunny, up your own arse middle class knob, Wed 14 Apr 2010, 11:41, closed)