Do you need some motivational words to get you going in the morning? Perhaps there is a big game coming up and you want to hype up your team. If so, a pep talk may be in order. With a pep talk, you can encourage those around you into action with just a few well-placed words. This post unpacks the meaning and origin of this expression.<\/p>\n
A pep talk is a short or long speech intended to encourage and inspire. It is a way to trigger feelings of confidence and spur action in one or more people. A pep talk means to give targeted or general encouragement in a way that will inspire the target audience into action. It can also be explained as an enthusiastic way of speaking which is intended to promote higher levels of production or team cooperation.<\/strong><\/p>\n In the US, a pep talk is most often used by sports coaches to trigger determination to overcome odds during a match. It is also meant to instill athletic vigor. In a business setting, it is used to encourage employees to reach a specific goal or to continue on during a particularly difficult work period. One can give themselves a pep talk to prepare themselves for a specific event or occurrence.<\/p>\n \u201cThe general went out to give his troops a pep talk before they shipped out to join the rest of the army on the front lines\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you are feeling uncertain before you give your speech, just pop by my office and I will give you a rousing pep talk\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cThe teacher gave the class an encouraging pep talk before they walked across the stage for the graduation ceremony\".<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you are down to your last penny, sometimes a pep talk can be that final push that helps you place one more application that lands your dream job\u201d.<\/p>\n As you might have guessed, the phrase \u201cpep-talk\u201d has not been around as long as many other idioms. The phrase actually came from the word pepper and was used starting around the mid-1800s. When the phrase first hit the scene, it was used to explain a sense of personal energy or spirit.<\/p>\n The meaning of the phrase changed to that of a motivational nature sometime in 1926. In the same year, The Mansfield News use the phrase to describe a motivational speech that the new outlet had covered. There is no exact point of reference for when the phrase became popular in the sports sector, however, that is how the phrase spread so widely.<\/p>\nExample Usage<\/h2>\n
Origin<\/h2>\n