Often when we hear the word “eye” we instantly think about the body organs located on our faces, but have you ever stopped and really thought about all the phrases we say on a daily basis that involve the same word, “eye?” Think about some common phrases you have heard or said that involve the word eye or refer to the human eye. Which have you come up with?
“She gave him the evil eye.” Is typically said when someone is being looked at by someone who might not be fond of that person. Usually, this goes with the other phrase “If looks could kill.” They tend to be a negative use of the word eye.
“Before you were a twinkle in your mother’s eye.” I have heard this so many times when people are referring to a period of time before you were even thought about let alone born. A time long before your existence.
“I think you have been hit between the eyes with that girl.” A rather comical phrase referring to a man who is smitten with a woman. The woman has a very strong effect on the man who has been hit between the eyes.
“Sophie is the apple of her mother’s eye.” A phrase of purse admiration and joy, most parents say their children are the apples of their eye, where else have you heard this common phrase used?
There are so many other common phrases as well, and there are even more that use other common words besides just eye. In the English language, we tend to use many words beyond their meanings, if you take a look at all the other languages in the world, English tends to be the hardest one to learn and there are a number of different reasons for that. I find it interesting though besides being a difficult language to learn how many times like we said before how we use common everyday words for other phrases and allow these words or phrases to have unwritten common knowledge meanings to them.