Q&A: The origin of ‘daylight robbery’

Each week here at the Australian Writers’ Centre, we dissect and discuss, contort and retort, ask and gasp at the English language and all its rules, regulations and ridiculousness. It’s a celebration of language, masquerading as a passive-aggressive whinge about words and weirdness. This week, we're stealing the show…

Q: Hi AWC, where did the phrase “daylight robbery” come from?

A: An interesting question. Macquarie Dictionary has a listing for it that defines this noun as “a shameless attempt to rob, overcharge, or cheat someone”.

Q: So where did the saying come from?

A: One common theory seems to point to Britain’s “window tax” – introduced in 1696 by King William III

Q: A tax on windows? What a pane!

A: Hilarious. But yes, the more windows in your house, the more you paid. So, considering that richer people lived in bigger houses, it was essentially a wealth tax in a time before declaring one’s income for tax purposes was not done.

Q: So it was a polite way of assessing how much money someone had?

A: Yep, although the tax backfired somewhat, as within just a few decades, people began bricking up their existing windows and new homes being built with fewer. All to avoid the window tax.

Q: The Dark Ages!

A: Exactly. Many believe this very real tax on the amount of daylight entering your home was the origin of the phrase “daylight robbery”. 

Q: Surely the tax isn’t still around?

A: No, the tax was eventually removed in 1851, and this is where we have a bit of a disconnect, in that the phrase “daylight robbery” doesn’t appear in print until the 20th century. 

Q: Where?

A: We first see it written in a 1916 play called Hobson’s Choice, and then in its modern meaning in a 1949 New Zealand novel called Roads from Home (“I can never afford it, said his sister. It is daylight robbery.”). It first appeared in the Oxford Dictionary that same year.

Q: Almost a hundred years since the window tax. That’s quite a large (bricked up) window of time.

A: It is indeed. And the reason why – as neat as it seems – the window tax link is probably just a convenient story rather than the true origin.

Q: So what IS the origin story? Please tell me it involves masked men in stripey outfits scooping up the sun into sacks!

A: Sadly no. It’s likely not about the daylight in regards to sunlight at all, but about the audaciousness of the act.

Q: Audacious because a robbery usually happens at night.

A: That’s right. Shady dealings are often associated with the cover of darkness – much like you’d not expect someone to rob your house in the middle of the day. 

Q: So it’s about being extra naughty?

A: Well, it’s just as naughty, day or night. But it is extra brazen to do it in the daytime. Macquarie also lists “in broad daylight” as an idiomatic phrase meaning to do something in full visibility, such as “a robbery in broad daylight”.

Q: What’s a modern example of daylight robbery then?

A: If you went into a bar and they charged you $19 for a glass of wine, you might call that daylight robbery. It’s really about blatant overcharging these days.

Q: But did it start with an actual robbery?

A: It likely began with another closely related term, “highway robbery” – in use from the early 1700s. And those were indeed very real things. Very brazen things too – stopping stagecoaches and robbing their occupants. 

Q: Like famous highwayman, Dick Turpin?

A: Precisely. The term “highway robbery” evolved from the literal streets to also mean overcharging. It was recorded as such from 1886.

Q: Except that instead of robbing you of ALL the dollars in your pocket, they rob you of EXTRA dollars in your pocket?

A: That’s right. You’d happily pay $9, but the extra ten bucks is daylight robbery.

Q: It better be a nice drop, that’s all I’m saying.

A: Note that Americans favour the term “highway robbery” for this kind of price gouging and overcharging, while Britain tends to use “daylight robbery”. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary doesn’t even list the latter term.

Q: So to recap, “daylight robbery” is brazen overcharging – from literal brazen robberies, rather than sunlight taxing. In fact, you could even be overcharged at night, and it would still be “daylight robbery”.

A: That’s it.

Q: While we’re here, why do we say that someone was “robbed blind”?

A: The phrase “to steal someone blind” appears from 1873. And “robbing someone blind” took hold from the 1890s. While it might seem like it’s related to robbing a blind person (a brazen act, akin to “daylight robbery”), it’s more likely from the use of “blind” as early 20th century slang to mean “completely or totally”. 

Q: So you’re being robbed completely?

A: Exactly. A superlative and again, often used in an overcharging context today rather than an actual robbery. For example, “watch out for that dodgy mechanic – he’ll rob you blind if you’re not careful.”

Q: Well, I feel like I’ve paid an exorbitant price for this knowledge, but it seems worth it. Now, do you have any soap?

A: No. Why?

Q: I wanted to make a clean getaway!

A: Grooooan.

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