I find great joy in using the expression pulling out all the stops. It’s a delightful and optimistic way to describe giving one’s all in a pursuit. Surprisingly, I had never delved into its origins until a friend shared an intriguing fact with me. The phrase originated in the late 19th or early 20th century in relation to organ playing, where a stop referred to a knob that controlled a set of pipes. When all these knobs are pulled out simultaneously, all the stops are pulled out, and the organ produces the loudest sound possible. The earliest recorded use of the phrase in a figurative sense dates back to a 1927 issue of The Oxford Magazine, where it was used to describe a particularly eloquent speech. Since then, its usage has steadily increased, reaching a peak in 2012.
