In the Wings and Wing It - Theatre Etymology - Part 4

The phrase "in the wings" means to be ready at a moment's notice. "Wing it" is a phrase that means to improvise. Both phrases have origins from the theatre.

For anybody that knows terminology for parts of a theatre, the first phrase makes perfect sense. The wings are the areas on the side of proscenium stage where the actors who are going to go on stage next wait. The phrase moved from the theatre to use in every day language to mean to be ready at a moment's notice. Sometimes the phrase is used when people are waiting for somebody to be finished with a job or to retire because they are ready to replace that person.

"Wing it," while seeming it might come from the sudden movement of a bird's wing, also comes from the theatre. Sometimes, actors had to go on stage and act when they didn't know a role. This was usually when an actor suddenly had to fill in for another actor and wasn't prepared to do that because they were not assigned as an understudy or swing for the role they had to perform. There are different theories to exactly why actors would "wing it,' though.

The first, which was printed in an 1885 edition of Stage magazine stated that actors "wing it" because they are given the lines from somebody in the wings. The actor goes on stage and the person in the wings feeds them the lines. The other theory is that the actor was in the wings and had to quickly learn the lines at that moment. Thus, the actor would read the script while in the wings and memorize lines as best as he or she was able.

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