Hi all, thought this would be a pretty good spot for an answer (or at least argument) about this. I was driving the other day and hit the gas, and wondered where "gun it" came from. My theory is it has to do with barrels on a carb opening up, with obvious parallels to firearm barrels... Would love to hear from all y'all that have been around the block longer than me. Mike
Remember that race between a car and a horse? It started with the firing of a starters pistol so when the competitors heard it they gunned it. Best I could do!
I prefer (in no particular order) Hammer it, Hoof it, Boot it, Bean it, Foot it, Hit it, Jump on it, Kick it, Smash it, Floor it, along with Gun it, they all are semi violent sounding idioms for acceleration. Common Hoodlum speak.
"Gun-it" is what my Mother usta say...........so I guess it was her.?! Nail-it is my favorite 6sally6
Like to point out the fact, that back there in the way back, many motors were run at less than optimum tune. The answer, when complaints were issued of not behaving properly were first reported to that guy who was a local junker whisperer. While under the hood listening to the carb throat, he makes adjustment or two. Steps back hollers to the owner " Now Gun It ! " The result is supposed to clear out the carbon / soot and get the valves freed up.
I heard it went back to WW1 airplane dog fights. The ideal position was to get above and behind your enemy, dive down on them with engine at full power and let them have it with the machine guns. Thus "gun it" meant wide open throttle, machine guns blazing, do or die.
When I was a teen, we used to say KICK IT IN THE GUTS. But we were young hot rodders and full of ourselves.
I also heard the expression "Balls to the wall" was an USAF idiom, the throttle levers had balls on top and to go fast you pushed them toward the control panel so balls to the walls. Since Hot Rodding, for a large part was comprised in its infancy from servicemen returning home, it would not surprise me to learn that a majority of our hot rod lexicon has its roots in the military.
Would guess the service men as well. Similar to "The whole nine yards" As in .50 Cal machine guns had 9 yard belts of ammo.
Remember the first time you shot a shotgun as a young boy and the power about knocked you on your ass? Now connect the dots to the first time you drove a fast car and got your ass planted back in the seat by pulling a trigger with a different name - the gas pedal. "Gun it" yes it's that simple.
Because "gun it" is easier to say than "vigorously depress the gas pedal in order to achieve maximum acceleration".
^^^ Likely very close to the origin of “gun it”. I don’t believe the origin is that specific but it’s on the right track. My personal opinion is...... The origin is 20th Century American possibly early 20th Century but most likely Mid-Century. It is highly influenced by automatic firearms most likely sub machine guns and points strongly to the prohibition era. “Top of the world Ma!!!” The power unleashed from a Tommy Gun drum kind of trickles down to the power unleashed from the throttle. In the prohibition era hot cars and hot guns meet. Another influence is the Second World War. Aerial combat, specifically strafing. Although a ‘70s movie an interesting comment is made in the Buddy Holly Story. On the long trip to Nashville, in boredom one of the band members says,” Let’s strafe some trains.” The USS Helena was called by the Japanese, The Machine Gun Cruiser to her high rate of fire. A cruiser’s job is to “run and gun”. To find a credible origin would take a great deal of research to find when the phrase was first printed. Until then, it’s supposition.
Were you by chance a teen around the time mad Max came out? Because that's where I picked up that line lol
That would be "Kick it in the guts, Barry". Still a common expression down under, though just like in the movie "kick it in the guts" often means "start it" rather than "operate it vigorously". Cheers, Harv
Most etymologies aren't as neat or as colourful as some of those mentioned. Cute back-stories generally turn out to be wrong, usually because they don't align with how language works. Anything involving an acronym is highly suspect! Anyone care to think up a clever backronym for G.U.N.I.T.? I'd conjecture that gun it grew quite easily out of the use of gun as a verb, as in gun down etc. Use of gun to mean "shoot (something)" enabled metaphoric usages along the lines of "do (something) with vigour, force, and accuracy", especially as the monosyllable lends itself to usage as an imperative quasi-interjection. I'd even suggest that adding it gives a sort of acoustic sharpness to the expression: ending on -n doesn't really convey urgency.
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