"sleep tight"

[Jonathan Lighter]

And cf. "fast sleep."

JL

On Thu, Feb 14, 2013 at 12:20 PM, Jonathan Lighter
<wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: "sleep tight"
>
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>
> Don't overlook "tight asleep," presumably the origin:
>
> 1872  S. N. Landis _The Social War of 1900_ [Phila.: Landis] 85:  Yis, dear
> Pat, I belave anything, after having seen Miss Lucinda Armington lying on a
> cot, *tight asleep** *in that cozy cell.
>
> JL
>
> On Thu, Feb 14, 2013 at 11:16 AM, Charles C Doyle <cdoyle at uga.edu> wrote:
>
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> > Poster:       Charles C Doyle <cdoyle at UGA.EDU>
> > Subject:      "sleep tight"
> >
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > A folklore student of mine was discussing the widely-known nocturnal
> > jingle or chant "Good night, sleep tight, don't let the bedbugs bite."
>  She
> > was perplexed by--obviously unfamiliar with--the somewhat idiomatic
> phrase
> > "sleep tight"; she wondered if wrapping up tightly in a blanket is
> supposed
> > the deter the onslaught of bedbugs!  At my urging, of course, she betook
> > herself to the OED, where, we discovered (to my surprise) the earliest
> > example of "tight" modifying the verb "sleep" is from 1933 ("Good night,
> > Son, sleep tight").  An 1898 quotation has "asleep tight."
> >
> >
> > A quick search of the ProQuest newspapers gives the sequence "Good night.
> > Sleep tight" from 1890:  Katharine Lee Bates, "Sibyl's Adventure," _The
> > Independent_ (28 Aug.).  In 1874 an unattributed essay
> > "Jack-in-the-Pulpit," _St. Nicholas_ magazine (Jun.), included what
> >  purports to be a letter from one "Heather o' Scotland" (also dated
> 1874):
> >  "May ye sleep tight an' ha'e mony happy dreams."
> >
> >
> > Presumably, the OED regards "sleep tight" not as an idiom or fixed phrase
> > but simply as one among many possible adverbial uses of "tight."
> >
> >
> > In any case, somnolar "tight" is somewhat older than the OED entry
> > reveals.  But not, perhaps, in the company of bedbugs.
> >
> >
> > --Charlie
> >
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