What does 'Pushing the envelope' mean?

Question

It was mentioned on Tonight with Trevor MacDonald, is this yet another new meaningless expression?

Answer 1

I think it means to extend yourself or something like that. But I agree with you and feel it is just another trendy saying.For me "going forward" really irritates when it is uttered by every C.E.O. in the world.

Answer 2

"Pushing the envelope" is a good example of how jargon -- the specialized or technical vocabulary of a group or profession -- gradually enters general usage. "Pushing the envelope" comes from the jargon of test pilots, and has actually been around since the end of the Second World War. The "envelope" involved is a sort of visual metaphor for the technical limits of a high-performance aircraft. A graph of such an aircraft's performance would appear as a rising slope as the craft approaches its limits of speed and stress, then fall off rapidly (putting it mildly) when the plane exceeds its capacity and the pilot loses control. Safety, relatively speaking, lies within these limits, or "inside the envelope." A pilot who "pushes the envelope" and tries to exceed the known capabilities of the aircraft risks what engineers delicately term "catastrophic system failure," otherwise known as a crash.

Because "pushing the envelope" had such a esoteric origin, it took a best-selling book -- Tom Wolfe's "The Right Stuff" in 1979 -- and later the popular movie "Top Gun" to introduce it to the general public. Since then it has begun to crop up in increasingly non-technical contexts, to the point where it is now a currently trendy metaphor for simply "pushing it," or testing the limits of what is permissible in a given situation.

--Evan Morris, The Word Detective

Answer 3

It is not a “new” expression. In its original aviation context, "pushing the envelope" presumably meant pushing a plane in test flight up to and even beyond its known endurance limits in order to find out its exact capabilities. The idiom is apparently American in origin, dating back (at least) to the late 1940's.

The "envelope" is defined as "limitations on air speed, rate of climb and descent, and rate of direction change within which a particular aircraft can be safely and efficiently operated."

By some definition, various values such as velocity, altitude, cargo weight limits, etc. can all be represented graphically; and that such a graph typically resembles a "misshapen trapezoid" referred to as an "envelope".

Others point out, as well, this usage represents a borrowing or extension of the mathematical sense of "envelope", i.e. "a curve or surface that is tangent to all curves or surfaces of a family of curves or surfaces".

Answer 4

Pushing the Envelope

This is an aviation term. It means pushing the aircraft to its limits, especially in the context of flight testing. Envelope has several secondary definitions referring to a collection of curves (mathematical and engineering jargon). So in the world of aeronautical engineering the envelope is the collection of curves that describe the maximum performance of an aircraft. To push the envelope is to take the aircraft to the edge of what it was designed to do and try and take it beyond.

It now is used in other fields meaning taking it right to the edge of what it was orignally supposed to do and maybe a little beyond.

Answer 5

Brad has the best explanation of its origin. The X5 test pilots also used the term to mean pushing closer to the boundary between Earth and Space.
In Business speak, It is more likely used to describe an act that gains more sales or profit by lateral thinking. Alternatively going that little bit further than the rest of the team or work colleagues.

Answer 6

"Pushing the envelope" is a term first use in the field of space exploration. NASA first coined the phrase when exploratory space missions had to penetrate through the atmospheric envelope with one final thrust. Today the phrase mean to push the boundaries.

Answer 7

No it is not a new expressions. When someone says "that's pushing the envelope", they mean "that's taking things a step too far" or "that's a huge exaggeration"

Answer 8

It means going beyond what society views as acceptable or allowable. Usually one that "pushes the envelope" is putting themself out there and looking to hold their own ground for something they believe in or maybe want to stir emotions in others about. Hope that helps!

Answer 9

It means like pushing someone...like if my sis kept yallin at me to et off the phone over and over..i would say "your pushing my envelope!!"

Answer 10

no it means taking whatever the previous standard was and making it useless because the "pushing the envelope" standard was just replaced by it