The expression to wing it, meaning to perform by improvising or with little preparation, comes from the world of 19th-century theater, where it denoted the work of understudies who stepped onstage and received prompting from the wings of the stage itself. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “”To Wing It” Origins”
Hello, you have A Way with Words.
Hi, this is Joan calling from Dallas, Texas.
Hi, Joan. Welcome to the show.
Hi, Joan.
What’s up?
The other day, my wife and I were discussing our New Year’s resolutions, or actually the lack of them. She said hers would be the same as every year, just wing it and see what happens. I think that’s originally from the Calvin and Hobbes comic strip. And that got me wondering about the phrase to wing it and where it might have originated. So here I am asking the experts. Where did we get wing it? Like to kind of make things up as you go along.
Right.
Yeah, you know, for the longest time I thought it had to do with just sort of jumping off a cliff, you know, like just taking a flying leap and trying to get there on a wing and a prayer or, you know, an aircraft that isn’t quite stable or something like that. I was surprised to learn that actually wing it comes from the slang of the theater world.
Really?
Yeah.
Yeah.
I thought that might be the case.
Oh, you did. Well, you were way ahead of me then. Well, I just had this wild idea because my mom was a connoisseur of old, you know, 50s musicals and stuff. And she would say, oh, that’s the such and such step and that’s the time step and that’s the buck and wing. And I thought, well, maybe that has something to do with it.
Well, actually, it has to do with understudies who take on a part at the last second. And so they’re in the wings and they’re studying the part. You know, it’s sort of like they’re cramming for the test and they’re either studying the part in the wings or they’re already out there on stage and somebody in the wings is there ready to prompt them if they miss a line.
Oh, neat.
Isn’t that cool?
Yeah.
It’s such a visual. You can just see being out there on stage. So you’re out there winging it. I didn’t think it would fit with, like, flying and pilots because I think pilots are being very straight-laced and, you know, serious. I can’t imagine getting on your plane to go on vacation and the pilot comes in and says, hey, we’re going to wing it today.
But you can imagine. You can imagine before all these navigational tools, somebody doing a line of sight navigation or just kind of guessing the direction that they needed to go or using landmarks on the wing, right? They might just do it as they go. And certainly the early days of aircraft were harem’s harem. But yeah, the theater definition that Martha had, that’s the real source of it.
Yeah.
1850s, does that sound right?
Late 1800s for sure.
Late 1800s, okay. I wouldn’t have thought it was that old. That’s really neat.
Yeah.
It’s cool. Thank you for your call, Joan. We’ll talk to you later.
Thank you so much. I really enjoy your show, and I always learn something.
That’s what we need to do.
Bye.
Thanks, Joan.
Bye.
