Location Taken: Chicago, Illinois
Time Taken: February 2008
I found myself using the phrase “Time to call it a night” today, and the more I think about it the less sense it makes.
The meaning applied to this idiom is along the lines of “I’m heading for bed, which requires me to stop doing what I’ve been doing, and thus stop talking to you.” There’s a bunch of idioms along that line. Might have something to do with us not wanting to say “I’m going to go lie near-motionless and oblivious to the world around me for a while, ok?”
But the literal meaning? That’s a bit of an odd one. You’re declaring that the opportune moment for designated an unspecified “it” to be the time of day when the earth is blocking the sun’s light has come. If it’s daylight out, it makes no sense, and if it’s night, well, you’re just stating the obvious.
And yet… Maybe it has something to do with the difference between daytime and nighttime activities. If your daytime activity happens to go past sunset, well, it’s still an activity normally done at day. By declaring that it is night, you’re implying that it is time to swap to the nighttime activities instead. Or something. Idioms are weird.
