Gary J Sibio
Sleeping Beauty (Courtesy of publicdomainpictures.com)
We’ve all heard the expression “sleep tight.” It even makes an appearance on the Beatles White Album in the song “Good Night.” It means “Have a good night’s sleep” but where does the tight part come from?
The earliest known appearance of the phrase in writing dates back to 1866 in Susan Bradford Eppes’ “Through Some Eventful Years.” She wrote: “All is ready and we leave as soon as breakfast is over. Goodbye little Diary. ‘Sleep tight and wake bright,’ for I will need you when I return.”
It didn’t catch on, however, at least not immediately. The next use dates to 1933. I recently saw a movie called “Too Many Husbands” which used the phrase often. That movie was released in 1940.
No one is certain of the phrase’s origin, but there are a couple of theories floating around.
Theory #1
At one time beds were a wood frame with a netting of ropes running from top to bottom and side to side. The ropes had to be very taunt or the bed was uncomfortable. So, to sleep tight was to sleep on a well-supported bed. The problem is that the phrase is directed at the person, not the bed. Also, the phrase doesn’t become well-known until the 1930s and we didn’t have those kinds of beds then.
Theory #2
The phrase “Sleep tight” is often followed by “Don’t let the bedbugs bite.” Could it be that it refers to wrapping yourself tightly in your bedclothes so that you wouldn’t get bitten? Not likely. It wouldn’t keep the bedbugs away. Also, the bedbugs addition only dates back to the mid-20th century.
Theory #3 – The Winner
The Oxford English Dictionary comes to our rescue. According to the OED: “It seems that tight in this expression is the equivalent of the only surviving use of the adverb tightly meaning ‘soundly, properly, well, effectively’.”
Oh well, I was really holding out for Theory #1.
Sources
The Phrase Finder: Sleep Tight
The Straight Dope: What’s the origin of the expression, “sleep tight”?
Text © 2013 Gary J. Sibio. All rights reserved.
Interesting theories
Intriguing etymological thought and discussion that adds to the knowledge!!!
Another post very interesting Gary, thanks for sharing! Always heard about the bedbugs.
I’m with Norman, your etymological endeavors are most entertaining. Your conclusion here makes me wonder how many of these stock phrases rely on now archaic uses of words that have long since fallen out of usage…
Nice and Great Post ..!
Nice post and nice picture!
I enjoy your etymological posts. They are informative, very well researched and presented. The artwork of this particular article is absolutely breathtaking. Do you, by any chance, know if it is a painting or a poster or whatever?
I would guess that it was a painting although it didn’t give any details about the artist when I found it. Usually they give the artist and the title.
“The Sleeping Beauty” by John Collier, a Pre-Raphaelite, almost a century ago. So yeah, it’s a painting…
very good photo awesome paintings
I love your etymological articles, Gary! The phrase ‘fast asleep’ suddenly occurred to me. Clearly, ‘fast’ here has nothing to do with speed, and the phrase means ‘sound asleep’, so it’s very comparable with your topic.
I know that fast also meant tight. Fasten, hold fast. It might have a similar origin. I’ll have to look it up when I get a chance.