Thread: To push an envelope...

"Towards the end of 1800s the Armenians became increasingly dissatisfied with their second-class status and began to demand change. The Armenian people pushed the political envelope in the Ottoman Empire by asking again and again - can a Christian be the equal of a Muslim in the Ottoman Empire?"

Армянский народ ... ,снова и снова задавая вопрос - может ли христианин быть равным мусульманину в Османской Империи?

http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-pus1.htm

[Q] From Claire Walsh (related questions came from Clive Pullinger, Linda Webb, Brian MacWhinney, Sue McCoy, and others): “I’ve always been puzzled by the phrase pushing the envelope; it’s an incongruous image that doesn’t seem to have any relationship to its meaning. Can you tell me where it comes from?”

[A] It comes from mathematics, specifically as it is used in aeroplane design. It was popularised by Tom Wolfe’s book of 1979, The Right Stuff, about test pilots and the early space programme. It’s an excellent example of the way that a bit of specialised jargon known only to a few practitioners can move into the general language.

In mathematics, an envelope is the enclosing boundary of a set or family of curves that is touched by every curve in the system. This usage is known from the latter part of the nineteenth century. It’s also used in electrical engineering for the curve that you get when you connect the successive peaks of a wave. This envelope curve encloses or envelops all the component curves.

In aeronautics, the envelope is the outer boundary of all the curves that describe the performance of the aircraft under various conditions of engine thrust, speed, altitude, atmospheric conditions, and the like. It is generally taken to be the known limits for the safe performance of the craft.

Test pilots have to test (or push) these limits to establish exactly what the plane is capable of doing, and where failure is likely to occur—to compare calculated performance limits with ones derived from experience. Test pilots called this pushing the edge of the envelope in the 1950s and 1960s, but this was soon shortened.

Following Tom Wolfe’s book and film, the phrase began to move out into the wider world; the first recorded use in the more general sense of going (or attempting to go) beyond the limits of what is known to be possible came in the late 1980s.

WOW!
Thanks.
So that could be translated as "испытывал пределы политического терпения" here.


And one more question if you don't mind:
(continued from my first message
And the answer to that question was decidedly again and again – no. The sultan was personally committed to stopping any reforms that would pull away from being Ottoman first and foremost. You could be an Ottoman Armenian – that was wonderful, but if you try simply to be Armenian then that was an act of treason.

I know what do the blue words mean but simply can't put them into Russian.

Has anyone any ideas?

Well, I am no master of Russian, but something like:

Султан был лично приверженным остановить любые реформы, которые могут прекращать человека быть прежде всего Оттоманом ...

Of course this was a rough translation, but I think you get the idea!