A few question about a curious phrase.

[vakkotaur]

The curious phrase is: "...scared the living daylights out of me."

Just what are daylights?
If it's day, are such lights really needed?
Where do they go at night?
How do we know they're alive?
Why are they in people?
Why can they be scared out of people?
If a person has the living daylights scared out of them, do only dead daylights remain in them?
Are dead daylights of any use?
Is there a less traumatic means of performing a daylightectomy?
Is a person better off with or without daylights in them?

Comments

[melskunk.livejournal.com]

I think this has just about reached my daily required amount of silly :)

[altivo.livejournal.com]

I'd say it means they frightened you so badly that you fainted or at least closed your eyes tight and refused to open them. :)

[melissasutton.livejournal.com]

(grin) have a bit of time on your hands today dear?

[vakkotaur.livejournal.com]

Not that much, actually. I just heard someone use that phrase and must have been in the right frame of mind to think of that. It's one of those phrases that people say and hear and know what is meant though the literal meaning isn't something that makes all that much sense. altivo's explanation is as close to anything reasonable for this phrase as I expect there is.

[chakawolf.livejournal.com]

Dude, you scare the bejeesus out of me!

[vakkotaur.livejournal.com]

Hrm...
Just what is (a) bejeesus?
Why was that in you?
Why can it be scared out of you?
Does this mean you will now be asked if you have found bejeesus?
Is there a less traumatic means of performing a bejeesusectomy?
Is a person better off with or without bejeesus in them?

[chakawolf.livejournal.com]

>bejeesusectomy

ROFLMAO!

[irpooh.livejournal.com]

Welllll.... here isone explanation

[tilt-longtail.livejournal.com]

And now.... Deep Thoughts with Vakkotaur

[commanderdata.livejournal.com]

I personally prefer having the positronic hooplah frightened out of me. Because being frightened is an emotion and I can feel it because I have an emotion chip..

*peers*

..and you do not. Intriguing!:)

[jdm314.livejournal.com]

I don't know, but from a classical perspective maybe it goes back to one of the following ancient clichés:

1) Light is symbolic of life. Afterall, before you're born and after you die you're stored in a dark place.

2) The word "light" was often used by the Greeks and Romans as a metonymical, or poetic word for "eye." This was because they thought that the eyes actually worked by EMITTING light--active, rather than passive scanning. Cf. the expression "to punch out (someone's) lights."