Occasionally when Chad and I are together we manage to have a semi-intelligent conversation. These moments are so few and far between that when they do happen, I document them. One of the things we talked about at PRU was the origins of the term “full tilt” because both of us hear it and use it a lot when announcing. After doing some poking around for an answer, I was surprised at just how cool and old this phrase is. In fact, I’d venture to say that it is the oldest “gearhead used” expression in our lexicon.
How old? Try about 600 years on for size.
The term “tilting” was first used to describe what most of us know as jousting. An English author in 1511 wrote about knights preparing for the “tylte” and half the phrase was born. Obviously the name of the game in jousting is to knock the other guy off of his horse by tilting him off to the side so he falls, hence the name. When the sport became more popularly known as jousting and the actual poles the knights held were called “tilts” the phrase “full tilt” came into use when both guys were charging at one another with their poles leveled.
This is neat on a couple of levels. Firstly because the phrase is so freaking old and secondly because I firmly believe that jousting was really the first equivalent sport to drag racing. How? Think about it. This was one on one competition with guys riding the greatest hot rods of their day, thoroughbred horses. Jousting arenas were some of the first sporting venues ever constructed and like a drag strip there were two lanes and a shut down area. Crowds would gather to see the knights get after each other and one guy would emerge at the end of the tournament as chief bad ass and hero. Sounds a lot like the digs to me!
Now, “full tilt boogie” probably came out of the 1950s or 1960s with the addition of the term “boogie” but as far as the original phrase? Thank the brave knights for that one.
Hey that’s cool to know,thanks.Now lets get John Force to poke a stick out the window of his funny car.So he can jab at the driver in the other lane.Now buddy that there would be a” Full Tilt “if ever I had seen it.
In the car selling business, “Full-Tilt-Boogie” was selling the car at FULL PRICE.
Also in the car business, when some “pipe-smoker” asks: What is the bore and stroke ? …. we would sometimes say: The BORE is a thousand down…and the
STROKE is $250 a month. Usually everybody broke out laughing except the
guy asking the question.