It is rather strange when you think about it.
I had not noticed this before, even though I am somewhat attuned to the oddities of language.
Mano Singham
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It is rather strange when you think about it.
I had not noticed this before, even though I am somewhat attuned to the oddities of language.
I guess “broad daylight” is in contrast to when you have the shades drawn, but a small ray of light is getting in on the side; i.e. “narrow daylight”. As such, I take it to mean outside, in the open; in full daylight, as opposed to merely in the day time.
That still leaves the question of why its only used in connection with nefarious activities.
See the nicely specific sense 2 and usage notes.
I see this as just one example of the excessive emphasis people tend to apply when talking about things they consider bad: have you not noticed that when people talk about bad things they seem not to be able to just say what they are plainly, after all then *you* might not understand just how terrible they are. So they start acquiring adjectives (usually clichéd as here), references to tangential circumstances, associations to nearby events/persons which can be used to cast a bad light (“he wasn’t just a shoplifter, he was a member of an *organised* *armed* *criminal* *gang* of ‘urban’ youths”), inferences/extrapolations from partial reports that can be used to construct whole vistas of evilness to daub generously over the event. All to rub your nose it in and make damn sure that you understand that this is the worst most evillest example of queue-jumping ever seen. And news headlines are just one obvious example of this.
(I believe xkcd has lampooned the effect several times.)
Most things happen in just one or the other of two times: day and night!
Just don’t go out during those two times and everyone will be safe.
😂😂😂
@Bruce, #3,
I don’t know, I think I’d be worried about being outside in the gloaming. That sounds like a dangerous time. 😉
I’ll further point out that a decent self-respecting criminal just can’t win here:
Commit crimes during the day and you’re doing it in “broad daylight”: this proves that you’re shameless, have no remorse, and deserve to hang.
Commit crimes at night and you’re doing it in the “pitch-dark”: this proves that you’re sneaky and dangerous, have no remorse, and deserve to hang.
Crepuscular criminals for decency!
It’s criminal to be liminal.
Eclipses are not supposed to happen in broad daylight, because there should be clouds every time you were hoping to see one. It’s criminal.
Not trying to be edgy with you, CD, but I’m glad to see you’re still okay.
Pope rat zinger.
Telling it as plainly as possible:
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/eaWj6hdyEd9yrjUJ/
“He tells it like it is”
Finally, a honest politician!
xohjoh2n @5:
In the dead of night.
“Broad” can mean more than just physical width, but fullness, lack of constraint, etc. According to the OED, it seems daylight has been broad for a very long time. We also sometimes express broad opinions, put them in broad outlines, and some of us even travel abroad.
This is a well known phenomenon, words with deprecated usage that are retained only in some specific phrases and constructions are called fossil words.