"dim <someone's> daylights", 1800

Tue Aug 23 18:38:38 UTC 2011

I presume knock/dim/smash/beat/thrash are all equivalent in this context.

Sure enough, OED does have it under "daylight" as a /general/ case,
without specifying all the verbs:

>  4. pl. The eyes. Also in extended use of any vital organ. Also to
> beat, scare, etc., the (living) daylight(s) out of (a person), to
> beat, scare (a person) severely. slang.

The quotations include (some in past tense) "darken" (1752), "shake"
(1848), "pull" (1884), "shoot" (1923), "beat" (1944), "scare" (1951),
"belt" (1960). It easy to spot "smash" (1832), "crush" (1885), "pound"
(1880) and "knock" (1842) with "daylight". Others require a somewhat
closer inspection.

"He cum mighty nigh knockm' the /daylight out/ o' me last spring." (1866)

On the other hand, I disagree somewhat with George Thompson's comment:

> "Daylights" was a prizefighters' term for "eyes": _"dim her
> daylights."_ would mean "black her eyes".

Consider the 1854 "knock" quote (the author appears to be Thomas A. Burke):

http://goo.gl/F42J7
The Americans at Home. Ed. by Thomas Chandler Haliburton. Volume I. 1854
XV. The Way Old Bill Went Off. p. 166
> He was Justice of the Peace, held two or three posts of honour, and
> could knock daylight out of a turkey's eye two hundred yards with his
> favourite gun.

Also,

http://goo.gl/cUy0e
The Family Treasury of Sunday Reading. Ed. by Andrew Cameron.  London: 1860
The Redeemer's Tears. p. 34/1
> When any measure of religious thoughtfulness comes on, it takes all
> the daylight out of yonr life.

http://goo.gl/H6d0n
A Fair Maid. Volume 1. By Frederick William Robinson. 1889
p. 117
> He looked after her for an instant, even seemed disposed to call to
> her, as though there were further questions he would put to her before
> she left him; then he sat down on the seat under the porch, laid bis
> sunburnt hands upon his knees, and thought the subject out, and his
> pipe out, and, at last, the daylight out; for when he came back to
> himself, there were the deepening shadows of the night advancing, and
> only a red tint lingering in the sky away to the west of him.

If "daylight" was "eye", he would not have needed to "knock daylight out
of a turkey's eye". I've also spotted a couple of comments, in passing,
that referred to the daylight going out/dimming from someone's eyes
because of becoming drunk. It seems "daylight" is closer to
consciousness or a euphemism for life, life-force (hence "/living/
daylights"). It's also related to British "to see daylight(s) out of X".
Of course, the meaning might have evolved from representing actually
seeing daylight, to "projecting" daylight, i.e., awareness, to just
euphemistically referring to eyes. But the 18th century quotes certainly
don't use "daylight" to mean "eyes".

Then, there is this:
The History of Jemmy and Jenny Jessamy. Volume 1. By Eliza Fowler
Haywood. 1753
p. 218
> Dear sister, I beg you will shew miss Jessamy the letter your ladyship
> received since our coming down to Bath ; it is the duty of her friends
> to force open her eyes, as she seems obstinate to shut daylight out.

This seems to match Joel's quotation almost exactly, except for
replacing "dim" with "shut [] out".

     VS-)

On 8/23/2011 12:18 PM, Joel S. Berson wrote:
> At 8/22/2011 10:02 PM, Dan Goncharoff wrote:
>> Did it ever change to headlights? I might still get inclined to knock
>> the living daylights out of somebody.
>> DanG
> But would you be inclined to knock the living *headlights* out of
> somebody?  Daylights are part of human anatomy (or something), and
> can be called "living"; headlights are part of mechanical anatomy,
> and can be literally dimmed, via a switch.
>
> "I'll dim your headlights" sounds like something sayable today, that
> I might even have heard sometime; "dim your daylights" not.
>
> ("Knock daylight" exists in only two quotations in the OED:
>
> 1881    Punch 17 Sept. 124/1   Ready at the call of duty to frame a
> new programme or knock daylight into an old one.   [I don't know
> whether this means "amend to be useful" or "punch holes in".]
>
> 1921    Everybody's Mag. Oct. 145/1   'The old son-of-a-gun has got
> to the Dutchman and is knocking daylight out of him.' He would go
> down and get a ring-side view.  [This seems rather concrete.]
>
> I don't find "knock headlight(s)", and nor did I find "dim
> daylight(s)/headlight(s).)
>
> Joel
>
>> On Mon, Aug 22, 2011 at 9:06 PM, Joel S. Berson<Berson at att.net>  wrote:
>>
>>> 350 -- [A Miss Dunstan tumbles against a Miss Slammerkin] who,
>>> stepping back, asked her, in an angry tone, if she had a mind to be
>>> running her rigs, telling her, at the same time, that she would _"dim
>>> her daylights."_
>>> ["running her rigs" = rig, n.5, P. 1.a. ="To make a fool or mockery
>>> of; to ridicule", from 1735--; or P. 2. = "to behave recklessly; to
>>> run riot", from 1750--.]
>>> ["dim<someone's>  daylights" not in OED?  When did this expression
>>> arise? (Google Books has only this one source with "her" -- and none
>>> with "his"!)  When did it mutate to "headlights"? (Also not in OED,
>>> and too many of the GBooks hits are literal for me to follow that up.)]
>>

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