Phraseology: Out of Whack

Have you ever said something was out of whack? More importantly, have you ever said something was in whack? Yes to the first, probably, and no to the second. Not me, I’ve said it both ways, but always without knowing where the phrase came from. What is its origin? I’ve always assumed that in order for something to be out of whack it must have been in whack at some time prior to whatever it was that took it out of whack. That brings up another good question, how do things get in or out of whack? There isn’t time to delve into that one, not right now.


No, right now we want to focus on what it means to be in or out of whack. We all know how the phrase is used. Something that isn’t right is out of whack. Whether it is confused, jumbled, broken, on fire when it isn’t flammable, exploding when it isn’t explosive, or just your computer processing slowly, it can be out of whack. But with such a wide application of being out of whack, how do we narrow it down and determine what it means to be in whack? Or do all of these things have to apply? In which case you would have to be clear, concise, in working order, not on fire, not exploding, and your computer is processing at an acceptable pace, in order to be in whack. I guess that isn’t fair to claim, being in or out of whack is a situation by situation determination.

According to ask.yahoo.com the term has a few options for origin. You can click that link and see what it says. One of the suggestions is that whack refers to the sound of the auctioneer’s hammer. The whack comes along when you get the lot you are bidding on, hopefully for a decent price. This means that out of whack means you either didn’t get the lot, or didn’t get a good price on it. I think this is a pretty good explanation. Of course, it isn’t as entertaining as I might have hoped. Now either I embellish the story to make it worth your while, or I find another phrase to define (maybe define on my own this time so it is more entertaining).

Well, I can’t think of any phrases right now that could have a strange origin. I can’t think of a more entertaining story for “out of whack” either. Maybe we’ll just have to settle with me repeating what I found with a 3 second Google search. Something you could have done on your own. Usually I would hope that these blog posts would do more for you than save you 3 seconds on a Google search, but sometimes I guess that’s just all I can do for you. Unfortunately I have now wasted those 3 seconds, plus many more, by not giving you anything more worth your while to read. And this on a Friday, too, criminal! Come back to read the next post, I’ll do something better, I promise.