"Shoot the lights out" (1968, golf?)

[Wilson Gray]

I've always considered its origin to be literal. Cf. any number of
movies and the '50's blues song, "Bang! Bang! Out Go The Lights."

-Wilson

On 6/25/06, Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at babel.ling.upenn.edu> wrote:
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at BABEL.LING.UPENN.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: "Shoot the lights out" (1968, golf?)
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On 6/25/06, Bapopik at aol.com <Bapopik at aol.com> wrote:
> >
> > I like Rutgers' Quincy Douby for the NBA draft. It's said that he can  "shoot
> > the lights out." We did "lights out" before, but not "shoot the lights  out."
> > ...
> > I thought this might come from basketball, but the early citations appear  to
> > come from golf.
>
> Here's a 1964 cite in a bowling column, with a usage I assume is metaphorical:
>
> Chicago Defender, Feb 29, 1964. p. 20/1 [HNP Doc ID 740681932]
> Last week I missed going over to see the Cascade Majors in action and
> naturally someone shot the lights out!
>
>
> --Ben Zimmer
>
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