Winging It
When I was pondering a research subject related to this issue's theme, "winging it," my thoughts turned to birds, airplanes, butterflies and even buffalo wings. Perhaps something on the Wright brothers or the future of passenger air travel? How birds fly? It was natural to look to all things winged for inspiration. Or was it? While trying to figure out just what "winging it" was and how I could explore it in this column, I realized that the way we use the expression is true to its roots, yet the general public has no idea how or why it came about. That is often how idioms work. We use them like they are second nature, never stopping to think about how they ended up in our collective vocabulary. No wonder learning a second language can prove so difficult.
So, what do we mean by winging it? Most people think of it as doing something without enough preparation or perhaps no preparation whatsoever. The term has many synonyms: improvise, extemporize, ad-lib, make up and many others. It is chiefly used in American English, where it originated. It is characterized as slang and has made its way into the writing and conversations of most Americans.
Contrary to what you may think, there were neither birds nor planes involved in the first usages of the term. It had its beginnings in the theatre world. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the phrase was first used in print in the late 1800s as theatrical slang and according to the publication Stage in August 1885, " 'To wing'..indicates the capacity to play a role without knowing the text, and the word in use came into use from the fact that the artiste frequently received the assistance of a special prompter, who..stood..screened..by a piece of the scenery or a wing." At almost the same time, the term was popping up elsewhere in theatrical circles and was used to describe an actor who had to quickly refresh his memory in the wings offstage before each scene. This backstage slang eventually became mainstream and now the term is used and understood by virtually all speakers of American English to mean performing an act despite being unprepared.
Some other common idioms that actually do have their origins in flight include: fly high, fly off the handle, let fly, on the fly, and with flying colors. Some wing-related ones are in the wings, on the wing, take wing, and under (one's) wing. Those are all pretty straightforward in their origins. But did you know that lame duck was originally a British term for someone who could not repay his debts? Today we use lame duck to describe a sitting politician serving the end of his term with no chance of being re-elected. And swan song comes from Greece, where in ancient times, swans (who actually never sing) were believed to sing a song before death.
So, next time you use the term "wing it" or any other idiom, pause and think about whether you really know what you are saying. You will certainly be understood regardless, but it is always fun to know why we express ourselves the way we do as well as the history behind our words.
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