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“The 'envelope' was a flight-test term referring to the limits of a particular aircraft's performance, how tight a turn it could make at such-and-such a speed, and so on. Wolfe added the metaphor was spoken of in terms of flight testing: The author’s 1979 book The Right Stuff, which detailed the early days of American space exploration, referenced pilot Chuck Yeager going through “the supersonic envelope.” Pilots, Wolfe wrote, were often talking about “pushing the outside of the envelope.” He believed the metaphor may have originated with test pilots at the Patuxent River Naval Air Station in Maryland in the 1940s, based on the “envelope” of air or gas containers in balloons and airships. The phrase apparently entered the mainstream lexicon thanks to Tom Wolfe. To push a plane past its speed limits, or past the limits of altitude, would be to exceed-or push-its envelope. It’s instead referring to the aeronautical term of the limitations of a physical space or technology.Īccording to Merriam-Webster, both the noun envelope and the verb envelop come from the Anglo-French word envoluper, with voluper meaning “to wrap.” In the context of air travel, the envelope refers to the operating threshold of aircraft. In this context, envelope doesn’t mean postal or paper correspondence. Why would ambition be related to moving an envelope around? Why do we invoke stationery?Īctually, we don’t.
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Send us feedback.Anyone exceeding the boundaries of convention or taking risks is said to be “pushing the envelope.” The phrase is so widely circulated that we don’t exactly question it, though it superficially doesn’t seem to make a lot of sense. These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'envelope.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
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2020 In addition, the legislation, which will be introduced at the Board of Supervisors next week, would relax density limits so that builders could squeeze more apartments into a building envelope. 2020 The three-judge panel can vote to reject a ballot if the signatures don’t match, the envelope is unsigned or unsealed, or the voter already cast a ballot in person, among other reasons.ĭan Petrella,, 2 Oct. 2020 Ahead of the election, workers can make sure the certificate envelope has all the necessary signatures, sort the ballots into 325 wards and alphabetize them.Īlison Dirr, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 8 Oct. 2020 North Carolina’s absentee ballot envelope is one of the most complicated in the country, and this year, the state asked the Center for Civic Design for help in overhauling it. 2020 Even the act of opening each envelope and preparing the ballot for tallying takes time. 2021 The Trump campaign had sued after complaining that its observer could not get close enough to election workers to see the writing on mail-in ballot envelopes, to ensure that the envelope contains a signature and an eligible voter’s name and address.Īssociated Press, San Diego Union-Tribune, 5 Nov. 2021 The walls had to match the bright pink of the lining of the envelope she had been sent, and so a special wallpaper was printed. Recent Examples on the Web Here’s a back-of-the- envelope estimate: about $65 million.Ībram Brown, Forbes, 5 Oct.