APAD: A sight for sore eyes

Meaning:

   A welcome sight; someone or something you are glad to see.

 

Background:

 

   This phrase was first recorded by Jonathan Swift, in A complete collection of

   genteel and ingenious conversation, 1738:

 

     "The Sight of you is good for sore Eyes."

 

   The title of the work suggests that it was in use prior to his writing it

   down. The currently used version of the phrase was first recorded by William

   Hazlitt, in New Monthly Magazine, 1826:

 

     "Garrick's name was proposed on condition he should act in tragedy and

     comedy... What a sight for sore eyes that would be!"

 

   That's all pretty straightforward. The rise of the World Wide Web has given

   this phrase a new lease of life. `Sight', `site' and `cite' form one of the

   small number of three-word homophone groups, that is, words that sound the

   same but are spelled differently. Another three-word example is `you', `yew'

   and `ewe'.

 

   A quick scan of the Web courtesy of Google (Feb 2016) shows these hits:

 

     "sight for sore eyes" - 549,000

     "site for sore eyes" - 133,000

     "cite for sore eyes" - 553

 

   Top of the list for the latter two are websites selling optical supplies and

   literary citations respectively, so they have some excuse. Many of the others

   are just misspellings.

 

- www.phrases.org.uk [edited]

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A sight for sore eyes sprang into view at the court in front of the Pebble Beach

visitor center overlooking the Carmel Bay.

 

The last weekend of March, the seven of us spent the earlier part of the day

coming down from the valley and stopping by every attraction on the 17-Mile

Drive. It was perfectly warm and sunny on the freeway but by the scenic route,

the choppy sea had spouted a pall of salty mist that blotted out the sun. It

felt miserably repetitive to me: arriving, alighting, marching,

marveling, freezing up, running back to the cars, and moving on to the next

spot. It was not until we reached the Carmel gate at the south end, after

passing grand desolate estates, empty golf courses, and more boring rich

lifeless estates, that the weather finally let up. In no time, we were back in

civilization.

 

Amidst gaggles of mostly Asian tourists, two elders, my cousin and I, sat down

al fresco to scalding coffee, looking into the serene emrald cove beyond the

rooftops downhill and basking in the afternoon apricity. It felt unreal.