babies-in-the-eyes

PossibleUnderscore commented on the word babies-in-the-eyes

'The miniature relection of himself which a person sees in the pupil of another's eye on looking closely into it. Our old poets make it an employment of lovers to look for them in each other's eyes.' Halliwell

'Sportively called by our ancestors a 'little boy' or 'baby' and made the subject of many amorous allusions.' Nares

June 13, 2010

Gammerstang commented on the word babies-in-the-eyes

(pl. noun) - (1) The miniature reflection of himself which a person sees in the pupil of another's eye on looking closely into it. Our old poets make it an employment of lovers to look for them in each other's eyes.

--James Halliwell's Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words, 1855

(2) Love in the expression of the eyes - the little babe Cupid, and hence the conceit, originating from the reflection of the onlooker in the pupil of another's eyes.

--Ebenezer Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, 1898

(3) Bird of the eye, the little refracted image on the retina. In many languages there is an endearing term of this kind. The Greeks call it the girl or virgin; and our ancestors talked of the "baby in the eye."

--Rev. Robert Forby's Vocabulary of East Anglia, 1830

January 17, 2018