I first mentioned this debilitating societal problem way back in 2012, and I’m sorry to say there has been effectively zero progress on getting this issue resolved. My letters to the UN remain unanswered, and texts to global tastemakers and influencers like Gallagher II and Grace Jones remain on read. We’re still just as afflicted as we were before, and I’m starting to think that, due to the vicissitudes of this juggernaut we call language, this may be a lost cause.
That lost cause? The misuse of the word “overdrive.”
I think what bothers me about how “overdrive” gets used in most non-technical automotive contexts is that it’s the exact opposite of what the word actually means. I think we all know how “overdrive” is used in most popular culture: it mean to go hard, to pull out all the stops and go absolutely apeshit on whatever you’re doing. It’s been this was for a long, long time. Listen to how our pals in Loverboy use it in their 1985 hit, “Lovin’ Every Minute of It”:
In case you have one of those medical conditions that prevents you from listening to Loverboy, (for example, I believe gout is one), then here’s the part of the lyrics I’m talking about (emphasis mine):
Oh, you want me to come alive?So flick the switch into overdriveYou and me can let it beReady (ready), aim (aim), fire
See what’s being suggested? You want him to come alive? Then you flick the switch into overdrive and blammo, all kinds of shit happens, probably involving shirts being flung off with the ruthless abandon of kudzu.
It’s this way in everything. For most people “overdrive” means high-tension, lots of action, full-bore screaming, engorged crotches, engines throbbing at their absolute limit. If we look at how the word is defined in a nice, level-headed mainstream dictionary like Merriam-Webster, we see the duality of the word:
1
: an automotive transmission gear that transmits to the drive shaft a speed greater than engine speed
2
: a state of heightened activity
going into rhetorical overdrive
Look at this ad for Laycock de Normanville, who made overdrive systems for a variety of cars, an overdrive that worked on the final drive/differential gearing as opposed to in the transmission itself. That’s why it could be added onto so many different cars. My Reliant Scimitar GTE had one, and it was great, working on both fourth and third gears!
Mostly, though, look at that headline “We all cruise with ease!” The idea of easy cruising I think is precisely the opposite of what people mean when they talk about kicking shit into overdrive.
I know that language plays by its own rules, and once a word acquires a certain meaning in language, it is extraordinarily difficult to change that, so I’m likely on a pretty fruitless quest here. Why can’t we use a word like “afterburners” for stuff like this? An afterburner does exactly what the common meaning of “overdrive” wants: it kicks everything up a notch, makes more thrust and speed, and when you kick in the afterburners, shit gets real. That works so much better!
Overdrive simply does not mean what most people think it means. Nobody screams “gonna kick it into OVERDRIVE” and expects the very next step to be calming the fuck down. But that’s what it is!
Maybe I can help people remember this by making a quick, crude explanatory comic:
Does that get the idea across? Does this help? If so, please distribute this comic to all of your peers. We’re already losing control of automotive words like coupé and roadster, and I’m just not ready to give up on overdrive, at least not yet.
I mean, let’s be honest, I’ve already lost, but, you know, sometimes it just feels good to fight.
Perhaps the songs are written from the perspective of the driveshaft, which really is spinning frenetically while in an overdrive gear
Another one: pump the brakes.
“We should pump the brakes on misusing the word overdrive“.
If you really have to pump your brakes, you need to take a look at them. Ask your mechanic if brake service is right for you. And you shouldn’t kick into overdrive.
Nice! Next do “iconic” and how the world has lost all meaning.
I think I’ll kick it into overdrive and take a nap.
see? this is the right way!
Telling the boss you’re going to kick into overdrive, then proceeding to calmly and efficiently get on with your work while sipping your coffee – win:win.
yes!