Put the wind up
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Semper Ubi Sub Ubi
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Joyce Melton:
October 19th, 2008 at 2:37 am
I have to say that I always assumed “put the wind up” referred to dogs, cats and horses who react to sounds or smells carried on the wind. Perhaps this easy association helped popularize the specific phrase that may have had a different origin in a song.
hugo martinez:
March 18th, 2009 at 11:39 am
Thanx for such an enjoyable article. I found it both illuminating and well versed. I wonder if you can help me with an expression I found which I do not seem to be able to get fully. It says, I wind myself up. It refers to a doctor who starded visiting his terminal patients (something doctors are especially asked to avoid). And he said that before he went on to mention how painful it was the sight of seeing someone so weak and powerless. I thought it meant I controlled myself. Does it? Thanx!
Armine:
September 4th, 2010 at 8:27 am
“I wind myself up” sounds to me like “I brace myself” that is I gather all my faculties for doing something that is hard or unpleasant still necessary to do.
Indian:
September 28th, 2011 at 12:49 pm
I guess finding useful, reliable inmforaiton on the internet isn’t hopeless after all.
El Sid:
December 6th, 2011 at 2:52 pm
I must admit I always assumed that “putting the wind up” came from hunting/stalking deer or similar. You always approach the deer from down wind, if you come from up-wind it might scent you – and it will be startled and run off.
The OED records the transitive verb “to wind” (short i)as dating from late ME in the sense of perceiving something/somebody by the scent conveyed by the wind. The song may have influenced things somewhere, but the underlying meaning must surely derive from the pursuit of wild animals?
@hugo martinez/Armine – “To wind up” (long i) has its origins in clockwork machinery like watches and music boxes, which were driven by a coiled spring that literally had to be wound up before they would do anything. It was then used figuratively, for instance a stirring speech to wind up the troops would rouse them before a battle.
It’s still a common phrase in British English, but the meaning has shifted a bit. It still means to “put under tension”, but for no good reason. The meaning is now closer to “teasing” or playing a practical joke (usually verbal) that preys on someone’s insecurities. So you would wind up a colleague by hiding the teddy bear on their desk or telling them that the boss no longer needs that report they worked on all weekend.
In Hugo’s case he’s putting himself under tension by visiting these patients, he was upsetting himself for no good reason (as the patients can’t be cured).
I’ve come across an interesting use of the phrase in a World War I memoir, Bullets and Billets by Bruce Bairnsfather. It was published in 1916 but chapter IV talks about his time on the Western Front between Ypres and Armentieres in November 1914. Even by that time a phenomenon called “wind up” (presumably long “i”) was recognised, a spontaneous outbreak of rifle fire that could extend for miles along the front, “caused entirely by nerves” – started by someone shooting at a shadow and triggering volleys in response.
I’d not come across the phrase in that sense before, but it perfectly links the original sense of a coiled spring being ready for action, and the modern sense of nervous tension being unleashed to no great purpose. It was obviously in common usage by November 1914, which makes me wonder if it actually dates back to earlier trench warfare such as the Boer War.
Bairnsfather then comments that it “put the ‘wind up’ me at first” – obviously in the short-i version of the phrase, showing that both were known by 1916 at least.
Alex JW:
January 6th, 2012 at 5:23 am
“Putting the wind up” similar to “having the wind up his tail”, is I believe referring to animals – particularly domestic prey animals such as horses, being nervous and lively in the wind. This is because they cannot hear or smell possible danger as easily and the sudden movements and noises that the wind causes, can give them cause to jump, be nervous and behave more erratically.
If we remember that horses used to be part of people’s everyday life and we would have understood them far more, then we also can see how many other phrases can be equine-related.
Canuck:
December 26th, 2012 at 1:55 am
I naturally subscribed to the CANOE (haha) theory before I even knew there were any theories about the origin of this expression. It’s not really one we use in Canada, though.
stu:
November 3rd, 2013 at 3:07 am
I can tell you it is a railway term.
‘Getting the wind up’ is the original term, it refers to the phenomenon of entering a railway tunnel and having the wind blowing in the same direction as you are going. In days of steam this was extremely hazardous. In fact railway engineers were instructed to lay down when going through a tunnel to ‘prevent expiring’. In fact there have been documented cases of engine drivers and stokers dying from asphyxiation whilst negotiating tunnels.
Entering a tunnel when the ‘wind was up’ was the engine drivers’ worst fear. The smoke from the engine would be blown up the tunnel and therefore there would be no supply of fresh air. Presumably the passengers were protected from this by being in an enclosed cabin, but the engine driver and stoker had no such protection.
Ma:
November 7th, 2014 at 1:32 pm
Getting the wind up or breeze up is caused by sheer terror effecting the persons breathing by gulping air down!
Morry:
November 7th, 2014 at 1:52 pm
Getting the wind up or breeze up is caused by gulping air during or after a extreme fright .You will know when it happens to you!
frank puccilli:
April 27th, 2015 at 10:16 pm
“get the wind up” Get the wind up means:
Get the wind up your ass. It is British.
“His ass was sucking wind.” Is the American counterpart.
When you get truly scared, you suck in air at both ends.
It aptly describes what actually happens.
John O'Riordan:
August 1st, 2016 at 6:56 pm
Formerly, In rural Ireland, there was a belief in fairies, who, it was believed, took various forms, sometimes they would manifest themselves as sudden gusts of wind, (Sidhe Gaoithe, – pronounced as Shee G-we- heh-) coming as from nowhere, vigorous gusts that would whip up light objects wisps of straw, or ladies skirts. etc. The Irish peasants felt that they had to be respectful in the presence of the ‘Little People’ who might otherwise become mischievous. The fairies had ‘put the wind up them’. This is just a suggestion but plausible. There is a painting of the Sidhe Gaoithe by Daniel McDonald in The Irish Famine Museum at Quinnipiac University • Hamden, CT. in the USA
Judy copek:
March 15th, 2017 at 12:03 pm
Nice thorough explanation.
Tharg:
June 18th, 2019 at 2:35 pm
The reason the Oxford English Dictionary is silent on the matter, and most reference works don’t even mention the phrase is due to coyness. The expression ” put the wind up his pants” is military slang which refers to a soldier who is nervous passing wind.