Eye see it now.

   During my latest hitch of nightshifts, an all too familiar scenario arose involving an employee and a pair of scissors. The employee was carelessly waiving around the scissors, compelling someone to shout “Be careful with those things or you will put someone’s eye out!” This statement got my wheels turning, as I have never agreed with, nor understood, the word usage.


   Let’s take a moment to examine this saying, as it is commonly misspoken. “You could put someone’s eye out.” We’ve all heard it a million times as a youth, and probably spoke it even more as an adult. But, isn’t this really an oxymoronic saying? You don’t really “put” eyes out, you “pull” eyes out in much the same way that you do teeth or the way you “pull” a vehicle from a ditch. If you are jabbed in the eye with a pair of scissors, wouldn’t that “push” your eye in, not “out”?

   All my life I have used sharp pointed objects to pierce with instead of “pull”. If you really think it through, it would be virtually impossible to pull someone’s eye out with a “poking” motion. I would be more implied to use the phrase of putting someone’s eye out if I saw them with a spoon. Now there is an object that could easily get an eye out, much in the same fashion that you would use an ice cream scoop. Soldiers have used spears and swords to impale people on the battlefield for centuries. These weapons were not meant to “pull” parts from a body, but instead to “push”, or penetrate the victim.

   The whole idea of using the word “put” instead of “pull” is confusing to me. Why don’t you ever hear parents screaming at a child who is holding a spoon? A spoon would be a much more efficient device to remove someone’s eye, as a sharp, pointed object would require a bit of prying and such to remove the organ.

   I propose that we change our saying to reflect the physics involve with the word “put” and “in”. It should go something like this; “Hey, (insert offender’s name here), be careful with that stick or you could “push” someone’s eye “in”! Or you could say; “Hey (once again the offender’s name here), slowdown with that spoon or you could scoop someone’s eye out!” Let’s say what we mean and mean what we say.