What is the origin of the phrase "a shot in the dark"?
And can anyone confirm the punning meaning of that phrase in the Peter Sellers movie so titled?
I haven't seen a movie in fifteen years. The phrase usually means a guess or action taken without much of any information on which to base a sound judgement on. That's my shot in the dark.
But before the Sellers movie there was a sub-B British flick from 1933 that this site cites as THE worst movie ever made, beating even
Plan 9 From Outer Space for that ambiguous honor:
http://www.kjenkins49.fsnet.co.uk/shotinth.htmThe movie was adapted from a novel and stage play of the same name by Gerard Fairlie (1899-1983), a show I remember seeing staged as a boy at a summer stock theatre in Middlesex, NJ, called Foothills Playhouse, when my parents were active with the company there. Except Mr. Fairlie's original title was without the "A"...
Shot in the Dark. He also wrote in the crime genre, so there's no phrase-spawning metaphors here. The novel was published in 1932.
[Edit] Found this on a site called
The Phrase Finder http://phrases.shu.ac.uk/meanings/, which is now, evidently, a subscription service. But you can still get into the
Meanings and Origins of Phrases link and search. They don't supply any dates or coining citations, though. And none of the top dictionaries or dictionaries of phraseology ( that I searched) carry this phrase??? Too obvious?
Shot in the dark- A
Meaning - A hopeful attempt at something.
Origin - Like a hopeful attempt to shoot at an enemy that you can't see.
Howya Kevia,
Just ta prove that I'm not just a cute face, I dug this up fer ya from the bowels of me brain:
Also know as a stab in the dark.
An act whose outcome can't be foreseen; a mere guess.
Metaphorically use of dark = in a state of ignorance and dates from the late 17th c.
Cowper used "shooting in the dark" metaphorically in Mutual Forbearance (1782) but a shot in the dark is not recorded before the late 19th c.
Hope this answers yer query
GallantTed
Keiva's not around right now, so, Ted, I'll go ahead and thank you for what you've provided.
Now, I wonder what would be the opposite term(s) for "a shot in the dark"? Bull's eye!?
Best regards,
WW
"Point blank" is one opposite to "shot in the dark". Point blank means you're so close you can't miss.
Something else, valuable I'm sure, on "a shot in the dark."
Doesn't it sound like a nightcap?
Doesn't it sound like someone with a drinking problem?
WW
There is/was a beep ball team in the Ithaca area called Shot In The Dark.
Beep ball, for those who have never heard of it, is a baseball-like game played by people either naturally blind or blindfolded. The ball emits a beeping sound and the batter, upon hitting the ball (it is pitched by a sighted person on the batter's team) has to run to whichever base is also beeping, which beeping doesn't start until the ball is hit. If the ball is fielded before the runner gets to the base, the runner is out, elsewise a point is scored.
Re opposite of shot in the dark
Bang on the button
Hit the nail on the head
GT
Bang on the button
Hit the nail on the head
Bull's eye
These miss the point of Shot in the Dark which is not saying that you've missed but rather, as Dr. bill pointed out, to try with insufficient information. This does not preclude hitting the target. Dr. Bill's point blank comes closer.
Dear Faldage,
I agree with you about Bill's point blank. How about dead on? Would that work as a plausible opposite?
And, T. Bear: "Bang on the button"? That a new term to me, and, somehow, unsettling....
Best regards,
DubintheDark
How about dead on?
I guess depending on how far you want to take opposite. The meaning of shot in the dark comes from the initiation, not the outcome. I should think the meaning of the opposite should also come from the initiation.
Well, then, Faldage, how 'bout, "Gentleman, start your engines!"? That's at the point of, if not exactly initiation, well, then ignition, huh?
Logic, schmlogic, what a bore!
Dear Faldage
Re "the meaning should come fron the initiation not the outcome"
I assume by that you mean to aim at point blank range (you could tell someone point blank - but that still doesn't say yer necessarily right - ya could be still shooten yer mouth off in the dark)
Could you not intend ta hit the nail on the head - before the outcome? If ya aim at point blank range ya may be initiaten, but there is still no guarentee that you'll hit yer target - what if ya have ta aim in the dark, fer instance? (there's many a slip...)
Besides, point blank isn't associated with guess work, as a shot in the dark is, so in a way yer mixen yer currency (taday is Euro day, by the way)
"An educated guess", though not quite close enough ta be an opposite, might perhaps be closer than "point blank".
So if, accorden to yerself, point blank is the closest and accorden ta me an educated guess is closer, then surely somethin closer than the closest has ta be right.
He took a shot in the dark - and missed
He aimed point blank - and still missed
He took an educated guess - and hit the nail on the head
Wordwind - sorry if I unsettled ya - bang on the button is a harmles phrase really, especially when ya get ta know it.
Be seein ya
GallantTed
Don't shoot till you see the whites of their eyes.
Is that how that went?
And, taking a shot in the dark, wanna bet that the board doesn't freeze up today with near everybody back at work? Of course, there are all of those lucky college students still at home, most of 'em.
DubDub
If ya aim at point blank range ya may be initiaten, but there is still no guarentee that you'll hit yer target
As there is no guarantee that you'll miss with a shot in the dark. You can take a shot in the dark and hit the nail on the head, you can shoot point blank and hit the nail on the head.
Now, "An educated guess" is in there, too. I still think I like point blank better.
would a shot in the dark be similar to the modern phrase WAG
(wild ass guess?)
Around here the cognoscenti call it a SWAG (=Stupid Wild Ass Guess)
BTW, whence the phrase "I'll fix your wagon"?
Where I come from the S is for Scientific.