Turn Off the Lights

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is David from Frederick, Maryland.

Hi, David. Welcome to the show.

Hi, David. What’s on your mind?

Well, I have a question about a phrase my wife uses. My dad gave me an appreciation for words and instilled a carefulness in my sisters and me about using them properly. So when my wife requests that I shut the light when I leave the room, I still feel the need to correct her, even after being married for 23 years.

In her defense, she cited Bob Dylan, or use the phrase in a song, shut the light, shut the shade. You don’t have to be afraid. But she doesn’t even like Bob Dylan. So, can I just get over it?

David, I want to ask about her background. I wonder if she has any Yiddish in her background or Italian maybe?

Well, she blames her past on her less than educated parents. But she does perhaps have some Yiddish in her background. Where is she from?

She’s from outside Philadelphia.

-huh. Interesting. I just wondered because there’s a Yiddish phrase that translates as close the light rather than turn off. And a lot of people say close the light. So it sounds like I need to get over this.

It’s a well-known enough dialect phrase that you will find pockets of people across the United States and Canada who actually say shut the lights. The producer of our radio show says shut the lights. She’s from Kansas City and her parents are from Connecticut and New York City. And you’ll find people in New York State and Pennsylvania and Texas. And my children now.

And your children.

Right. So they’re going to blame their parents like your wife blames her parents?

Right. Well, and Bob Dylan too, right?

Yeah. In that song, I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight. It’s common enough that in any fairly vigorous discussion forum about language, it comes up. Because people have the same encounter that you have. They know somebody or live with somebody who says shut the lights and it seems wrong or odd to them.

There are some kind of lanterns where there’s a little door that you close and open to increase or decrease the light. And so you are literally shutting this door when you want to reduce the light.

And the Italian phrase for shut the light. What’s that?

Well, it’s shut the light. I mean, it’s cutie, I think, something like that. Close, close.

Yeah. And there’s also some notions related to circuits involved with electricity. Usually closing a circuit means to make it work.

Yeah, that’s the weird thing.

Yeah, but there are notions of open and close that don’t have to do with doors or passages or a space that you can travel through. They’re more about off, on, or binary even, zero or one, black or white. Open and close are very broad terms.

So in other words, I think what Grant is saying, David, is that there are so many different phrases, actually, for turning the lights on and off. I mean, my dad from North Carolina used to talk about cut off the lights. He would say mash the button and cut off the lights.

Very nice. And the other thing is, David, we get email pretty regularly from people thinking that turn off the lights is wrong. You’re not turning anything. They don’t usually have a really good replacement for turn off the lights, but you’re like, you’re not turning. What’s being turned here?

It’s funny because that’s what I grew up saying, turn off the lights.

Yeah, it’s an up and down switch. How is that a turn?

Yeah, and it’s not switch off the lights. Is it point the switch down? Is that what you should say?

David!

I’m not going home.

You’re not going home?

She loves you. Just don’t leave the lights on and she won’t say that anymore.

Okay. Thanks for calling. Really appreciate it.

All right. Thanks a lot. Take care.

Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

Bye.

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