Jun 23 2007
a sight for sore eyes
a sight for sore eyes = a sight to sooth sore eyes = something good
According to phrase-finder of the phrase predates a recording of its origins and defines it specifically as referring to seeing a person, a person is a sight for sore eyes, it is good to see them. Phrase finder attributes the first recording of the phrase to Jonathan Swift in 1738 then proceeds to identify new uses similar to those I found through a quick web-search:
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as a soundbite, title, on journalistic articles that refer to web pages, sites: the Gaurdian refering to unviersity web-pages, the American Bar association Web2.0., a website summarising websites.
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play on word sound (homophone) replacing sight with site and for with 4. For example as the name of this freeware website.
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to advertise optical products such as eye balm.
This post was inspired by curiousity after having encountered the opposite meaning used conversationally:
site a sight for sore eyes = a sight to produce sore eyes = something bad
This opposite meaning is much less prolific. I have not found it through web searches. A literal interpretation of the idiom legitimately produces this meaning because the goodness, or badness, of the sight for the sore eyes is not explicit in the phrase, you have to infer it from the use context.
a sight for sore eyes
