Fly off the Handle

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hello.

Hi, who’s this?

This is George Weller, Stansted, Quebec.

Hi, George. Welcome to the show.

Hi, George.

Hi. Well, I was wondering about fly off the handle. Sometimes when people get obsessed, maybe my wife or somebody, and I say, don’t go and fly off the handle. Now, I’m a private pilot, and I know on Halloween there’s witches with brooms and whatnot, and I was wondering if maybe fly off the handle came from a witch flying off the handle of her broom.

Boy, I never thought about that image of flying off the handle, meaning riding a broomstick through the sky and then flying off the handle somehow, just getting a little crazy or getting a little overly excited about Halloween.

Yeah, maybe having a little too much to drink or something.

So that’s what flying off the handle means to you, just a general excitement?

I used flying off the handle as somebody gets all uptight about something or other and does sort of lose control a little bit.

Oh, interesting.

The origin of it is pretty darn literal, but it refers to a tool like an axe or a pick or something like that. You know, you’re using it really vigorously, but the head on it is loose and it just goes flying off the handle.

Huh. That’s actually happened to me. The metal head of the axe has come off of the handle.

Didn’t injure anybody?

No, no.

But it went flying through the air?

Yeah.

And that’s exactly it. That’s exactly the idea behind don’t fly off the handle. It’s a bad thing.

And dangerous.

Yeah.

It’s got a couple hundred years to it, more or less, right?

Yeah, around since the early 19th century, I think.

Well, that’s when a lot of wood was being caught, I guess.

Indeed.

George, thank you so much for your call. Really appreciate it.

Well, thank you.

Take care.

Okay, bye.

Bye-bye.

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