The idiom “a sight for sore eyes” dates back to at least the 1700s and was borrowed from the optometry industry. It originally referred to relief from tension or fear and was first used in print by Jonathan Swift. The phrase has been shortened over time and is sometimes used negatively, but good usage precedes bad. Optometrists may not be aware of the original meaning of the phrase.
The idiom “a sight for sore eyes,” meaning a welcome and pleasant event, appears to date back to at least the 1700s, although it may have been used earlier. As is often the case with well-known idioms, the phrase was borrowed from the industry, as a casual survey of optometry offices will reveal. Many people continue to colloquially say something is a sight for sore eyes, even though they may not be aware of the roots of the phrase.
“Grieving,” in this particular case, refers to being tense, fearful, worried, or grieving. While this meaning of the word in English is no longer widespread, it was a commonly accepted usage by the time of the King James Bible. Since the King James Bible was one of the first official translations of the Bible into English, it can be assumed that many of the uses of words in the Bible reflected common usage, as the intent was to make the Bible accessible to all. During this time, many people wrote and talked about things like being “very scared,” to “extremely scared.”
In this sense of “sore,” a sight for sore eyes would be something that brings relief from tension or fear. Jonathan Swift appears to have been the first to use the term in print, in 1738, writing that “your sight is good for sore eyes”. His casual use of the term suggests that it was probably a well-known phrase in England of the period, so it may have been in use for decades earlier.
Over the years, Swift’s words have been shortened, with most speakers obscuring the “good for” and turning the idiom into “a sight for sore eyes,” with the meaning remaining the same. There are some exceptions; some people use the term in a negative sense, suggesting that the vision in question actually causes eye pain. However, this reversal of the conventional meaning of this phrase is relatively rare and usually clear from the context. Should you find yourself discussing the phrase with someone who believes it has a negative meaning, you might want to point out that good usage precedes bad.
Optometrists who have co-opted the term may not be aware that the eyes in question are sore in the sense of fear, rather than aching in the sense of painful. Likewise with people who have come up with clever puns involving homonyms for “view,” like “site” and “mention.”
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