Jesse in Newport News, Virginia, is an auto-racing enthusiast who often hears announcers talking about a driver getting on the binders, meaning “to brake” when going into a curve. As early as the 1930s, the term binders has referred to the brakes of a car, and may have been used earlier that way in aviation. A collection of service slang from World War II has a similar phrase meaning the same thing: jump on the binders. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Binders Meaning Brakes Origins”
Hey there, you have A Way with Words.
Hey, this is Jesse from Newport News, Virginia.
Oh, great. Well, welcome to the show, Jesse. How can we help you today?
Well, there’s a phrase that I have heard watching a lot of auto racing. I race cars out here in the Virginia, Carolina area, and I watch a lot of racing from NASCAR all the way down to local short track racing. I’ll hear an announcer describe the way that one of the drivers is maneuvering his car as when he’s getting it slowed down going into the turns. He is getting on the binders.
And I have tried searching it and have asked a couple people about it, and I have no clue what that is in reference to or where it comes from. Getting on the binders.
So you’ve heard this more than once.
Oh, yeah. Yeah, I’ve heard, like I’ve seen it on, you know, watching like a NASCAR race, like in a national race and even heard it at like a local level. It sounds particularly British for some reason is what comes to mind when I kind of think of it. But I’m not sure if I’ve heard Lee Diffie or one of those announcers say it before, but it’s always referred to when trying to load the car down, like going into the turns and bring it down to speed. But I don’t know where it comes from.
I do know that by the 1930s, this term for binders, meaning the brakes, was fully entrenched in U.S. car racing lingo. You can find it pop up again and again in newspapers that have little glossaries of car racing slang. Even advertisements for motor oil it shows up in. So the 1930s, it was fully entrenched, and it shows up with a lot of other fun stuff.
Before that, it’s a little shaky, but there’s some evidence that it may have also been used for airplanes. And one source, a British slang lexicographer, says that it was used by the Royal Air Force, that’s in the UK, since the mid-1920s. I don’t know if that is why you’re getting a British flavor to it, but that’s a little bit of evidence.
I’m not surprised at all because in the early days of race car driving, the same kind of daredevils that like to go fast in cars also like to go fast in planes. But you will still, to this day, hear it in some airplane use and in motorcycles and kind of any place that machines need braking. I think there’s some use in the military as well.
That’s interesting. And next time I meet a pilot or anyone who flies, I might try to throw that lingo their way and see if they pick up on it.
Yeah, ask and see if they use it. It’s still slangy. There’s a World War II slang dictionary. It’s a collection of service slang. And there’s a phrase, jump on the binders, defined as apply the brakes. And when you said that you heard an announcer say, how did he phrase it?
Just getting on the binders.
Getting on the binders. It reminded me very much of that, but jump on the binders, getting on the binders, it’s so similar to me. It’s funny that, like, here we are 60 years on, and the phrase could be almost the same, jump on the binders, meaning apply the brakes. Pretty cool, though.
All right. Jesse, call us again sometime with racing lingo. This sounds like something we need to dig into some more.
I appreciate it. Bye.
Take care. Bye-bye, Jesse.
Well, if you have a hobby with a lot of great lingo, we’d love to hear about it, whether it involves any kind of racing, car racing, bike racing, maybe balloon racing. Give us a call, 877-929-9673, or tell us all about it in email. That address is words@waywordradio.org.
