Thursday, April 11, 2013

Right smack dab in the middle


That's a real conversation, I kid you not.

My eye is okay but now I'm wondering where the expression "smack dab" came from. 

The evolution of the phrase is kind of interesting.   The expression has been in common use for roughly 200 years in the United States.

Smack dab is southern Americanism mutated from the British word "slapdash".  "Slapdash" means colliding with force and halting abruptly.  

The word "slap", incidentally, is derived from the German word "schlappe". 

Slap means to hit something with force.  Smack is fairly equivalent to that.  

Dab is also a Britishism meaning being skilled or clever at something.

Smack-dap means to hit something directly or squarely.  

So, there you have it - smack dab.

Can you actually go blind if you get hot sauce in your eye?  I wasn't able to find a definitive answer.  However, my advice would be to avoid getting hot sauce in your eyes at all cost because it hurts like Hell . . . literally.

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