Still Unsolved Still a Mystery

Keep an Eye On

"To watch something or someone closely."

One of the plainer entries in the repository, and an honest reminder that not every idiom hides a dramatic backstory. "Eye" has stood for watchfulness and attention in English for centuries, and "keep an eye on" is documented from at least 1824, but no specific coining moment, event, or writer has ever been credited with it. It may simply be that a phrase this literal and this useful never needed one.

Sources: Oxford English Dictionary (citation from 1824); no specific origin story documented in phrase-history references.

Quick react

Discuss

New comments are held for a quick check before they show up here.

Loading comments…

Back to the full repository