Why do people say "You scared the living daylights out of me" when daylight is not living?

Answer 1

The word daylights was used in the eighteenth century to mean one’s eyes. The first example on record is from 1752, in Amelia by Henry Fielding: “If the lady says such another word to me ... I will darken her daylights.” It extended its meaning through the following half century to mean any vital part of the body, not just the eyes.

So a sentence like “they had the daylights beaten out of them” would be taken more or less literally to mean that the persons concerned suffered severe injury. There are many examples in the nineteenth century of expressions like “knock the daylights out of him” or “scare the daylights out of him”. The word is still common today in several fixed phrases, though it’s usually used figuratively. One example chosen at random: “The Bulldogs beat the daylights out of Rice 52-21 in a Western Athletic Conference game” appeared in the Fresno Bee in November 2004. However, hardly anyone now knows what one’s daylights actually are.

In the later nineteenth century, the original term was expanded to living daylights. Perhaps daylights by then had become less clear in meaning, so that an extra word had to be added to restore its full force. It was unnecessary repetition, since one’s daylights were always alive, but logic has never been a powerful influence on the creators of words and phrases. The earliest example I’ve come across is from a newspaper dated 1891: “‘Jehosaphat!’ said the sportsman. ‘I’m not going to be insulted by a miserable rabbit,’ and he started to club the living daylights out of the beast with his gun.”

Answer 2

The living Daylights capacity: a individual's eyes; extra these days, the existence stress or awareness. the unique 18th century meaning of 'daylights' became into rather particular and literal; it meant 'the eyes'. That meaning is now long forgotten and few everybody knows it. the 1st prevalent citation of the awareness is one such occasion; in Henry Fielding's novel Amelia, 1752: "solid female! i do no longer use to be so taken care of. If the female says such yet another notice to me, d--n me, i will darken her daylights." by utilising the time that the intensifier 'living' became into extra, the word had lost all affiliation with eyes. The earliest prevalent version of that kind became into revealed in diverse US newspapers interior the Nineties, as an occasion, The Decatur Morning overview, September 1890: "'i'm unlikely to be insulted by utilising a depressing rabbit', and he began to club the living daylights out of the beast together with his gun." the twentieth century version of the word is the yank 'punch somebody's lighting fixtures out'. The precursor to this sort of the word became right into a broadly syndicated newspaper record of the 1956 combat between Sugar Ray Robinson and Carl (Bobo) Olson: "Robinson's knockout punch became out the lighting fixtures for Bobo interior the 2nd around."

Answer 3

Daylight is in a dormant state within the body. It becomes living daylight when fear triggers the LDLs in the daylight thus shooting it this way and that out the body.

Answer 4

Comes from back when daylight was living. Then the EPA got involved, and it's been in a coma since.

Answer 5

when you are preoccupied and into something very deep and you don't realized that they come in and then they touch you and thats why ppl say You scared the living daylights out of me. its just an old saying

Answer 6

Because light signals on and dark signals off, so it's the same as saying you scared me to death.

Answer 7

I don't know but I think vjaxxon is related to the Wikipedia guy.

Answer 8

BECAUSE IT IS A FAMOUS QUOTE OF A FILM:
PEOLE ARE DUMB
DAYLIGHT DOES NOT LIVE.
SKY

Answer 9

i have no idea, i wish i knew all the answers to all your weird questions! :D