Phrase Origins: The Living Daylights

Whenever I heard the phrase "the living daylights," I think of when people say "you scared the living daylights out of me!" While I know that this means "you scared me," and is usually used to say that when something scary isn't meant to happen, but happens anyway. However, I don't know what "the living daylights" are. I certainly don't know the origin of the phrase "the living daylights." I'm not sure how to theorize on that either because I don't know how daylight would live.

If I research the phrase, "the living daylights," I find that it means "a person's eyes" or "life force" or "consciousness." It is a good thing that "the living daylights" doesn't only mean eyes, because it would be strange to have somebody scare the eyes out of somebody else.

At first, "daylights" meant eyes. Perhaps because this is what allowed people to see daylight. Another reason might be that the eyes seemed to shine so much that it was thought daylight could come from them. No matter the reason eyes were called daylights, it is known that they were and that things related to eyes and to seeing often used the word "daylights." (An example of another phrase is "daylight robbery.")

In 1752, Henry Fielding wrote Amelia . He included the line, "Good woman! I don't use to be so treated. If the lady says such another word to me, d--n me, I will darken her daylights."

Then, in 1756, Francis Grose wrote A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue . It included the line, "Plump his peepers, or daylights; give him a blow in the eyes."

It is obvious that both these phrases use the word "daylights" to refer to eyes.

By the 19 ^th century, the phrase was going out of use. The intensifier "living" was added in front of the word "daylights" in 1980. By that time, "daylights" was no longer used to mean "eyes."

By the 20 ^th century, the phrase was "knock someone's lights out." It was only the 1987 release of the James Bond film, The Living Daylights that made the phrase popular again.

Source:

Martin, G. (n.d.). The living daylights. The meanings and origins of sayings and phrases . Retrieved April 26, 2011, from http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/living-daylights.html