Hi, everyone. And welcome back to the fun segment called It Means What? Hi, 安瀾.

Hi, Lulu, hi, everyone.

歡迎大家回來【詞源考古研究所】, so 安瀾, which particular phrase or word or idiom that we're gonna talk about today?

You know the expression robbery?

就是搶劫.

Have you ever heard of “daylight robbery”?

搶劫不應該是夜黑風高嗎？

Daylight robbery. I've heard you're robbing me in broad daylight, 光天化日下搶劫我.

I'm assuming it's not real robbery. It's more like what you're doing, it's almost like you're just blatantly robbing me blind.

Yes.

你做的事情就好像在光天化日之下搶劫我一樣明目張膽.

Well, exactly. Daylight robbery means it's theft or it's something very unfair, that is really obvious.

For example, if you are ripped off, by like a seller, 如果你來買什么東西被宰了, 或者比如說打車, 然后被繞遠路了, 你都可以說this is daylight robbery.

Or if you go into a restaurant and you see a dish that is really, really expensive and for

no reason, you would say that's daylight robbery.

I see the context, in Chinese we probably say something similar, it’s like這不是明搶嗎?

Yeah, like daylight robbery. So is there an actual origin story because it sounds pretty obvious already you're robbing me in broad daylight.

Actually, there is a story linked to it and it comes from the 17th century.

In 1696, the English government introduced a tax on houses based on the number of windows they had. This was a type of property tax.

Ok, 所以這個房產稅是按照你有多少個window, 你有多少個窗戶. So they assumed the more windows, obviously the bigger the house was.

Exactly. So homeowners, especially those with large houses, often bricked up their windows to avoid paying the tax.

Brick up means they use brick to just block the windows. Yeah. I think I've seen this in London somewhere some of the old houses.

Yes, some of the houses from that era, they do actually have bricked up windows which they just never got round to unbroken.

But people need light though.

Well. They normally bricked up the servant’s quarters, not their own bedrooms or their own rooms.

I see.

Now this tax was, you can imagine, was really, really unpopular because it was seen as unfair. People felt that it was saying they don't need daylight. They were effectively taxing sunlight.

所以就是日光稅, 我好像還看到過這樣的一個翻譯.

They're taxing sunlight. Yeah, if you think about it, it is a bit ridiculous, but then again I think property tax if you do own a bigger, a larger house, that's how property tax work. And then if you're trying to play tricks on trying to brick up your servant’s windows and trying to dodge property tax, that's really on you

Well, exactly. And ever since then, it said that this expression daylight robbery means to describe something that was so unfair. It was like stealing daylight, sunlight from people.

So my understanding was somehow different, right? When I was thinking about daylight robbery, I thought it was robbery committed in broad daylight, but it's actually they're stealing, they're robbing people of daylight.

Now this is one origin story. It could be, as you said, that's the thing about idioms. No one's quite sure the origins of idioms, there's always a lot of debate, there's a lot of discussion.

Lot of different theories.

But to be honest, it doesn't really matter because all of these origin stories they are there to help you remember the idioms a little bit better, a little bit easier that you can use them as long as you know how to use them, then that's fine.

Exactly. And it's a fun little story from history. So now if I say this is a daylight robbery, that means it's basically so obviously unfair.

It's so obviously you're ripping me off. Yes, that kind of idea. I see.

So 安瀾, has it ever happened to you? I know you can be quite tightfisted, but have you ever been in a situation that you paid for something and later on, you think this is just daylight robbery?

Yes, and I'm gonna ignore the tightfisted comment,

Which is true.

I'm not tightfisted. You need to pay me more.

Ok.

When I was traveling, I always get magnets for my mom.

冰箱貼是嗎?

Mhm. My mom loves collecting magnets, so every time I go to a new city or new country, I always get the magnets there; and the last place we went to was Poland. I got a magnet there for about 5 Euros for my mom.

Yes. When you bought that I was like really? are you paying 5 Euros for something like that and remember what I told you. You could have gotten it cheaper on Taobao.

Well actually when I came back to China, I did go on the almighty Taobao and had a look. I found the same magnet for about 8 RMB

That's like 1 Euro, just a little bit over one euro. Exactly.

So that is a good example of daylight robbery.

I suppose they need to ship it from Yiwu so you're probably paying for the transport.

Absolutely

So from now on I guess you're getting all of your kitchen magnets from Taobao then.

I am now. What I do now is I plan where I'm going to go find the magnet on Taobao and then just pretend to my mom that I bought it actually at the place.

She wouldn't know the difference. Exactly.

And that will end today's etymology segment. Before we finish, just a reminder that we have just launched a course completely about idioms.

Don't forget to check that out. Thank you 安瀾for coming to the show.

Thanks, lulu. Thanks, everyone.

You can leave us a comment if you have any specific request for any specific phrases or words or idioms

Or just tell us the last thing that you thought with daylight robbery.

We'll see you next time. Bye bye.

Daylight robbery

(an act of theft or unfairness that is blatantly obvious.)

a.In 1696, the English government introduced a tax on houses based on the number of windows they had, which was meant to be a form of property tax.

b.Homeowners, especially those with large houses, often bricked up their windows to avoid paying the tax.

c.This tax was widely unpopular because it was seen as unfair—people felt it was an attack on their basic need for daylight, effectively taxing sunlight itself.

d.As a result, the phrase "daylight robbery" emerged to describe something that was so unfair it was akin to stealing daylight from people.