This came to me from one of those email jokey things one gets forwarded occasionally.  In it the comedian in the email jokey thing says, "What happens if you get scared half to death twice?"

So, okay, that’s sort of funny.  But I’m curious about this phrase, to scare someone half to death.  I’ve heard "Scared to death," too.  Both of them seem like one of those expressions that are literally impossible - is there a word for that?  You can’t really scare someone to death, unless, I guess they have a heart attack, but then how does one measure the halfway to death point?

This reminds me of a joke, I believe from Ellen DeGeneres (though I could be wrong).

They say that the wages of sin is Death, but once they take taxes out it’s more of a tired feeling really.

I’ve heard the phrase "Scared (half) to death" for most of my life.  Startling a certain aunt of mine would elicit just such a response (and possibly a few obscenities).  We would tease her that if two of us did it, she’d be done for.  Happily, she is still with us, though just as jumpy as ever.

I guess I read this phrase as "...any more and I’d be dead."

[quote author=dgale link=board=idiom;num=1042047303;start=0#0 date=01/08/03 at 12:35:03]But I’m curious about this phrase, to scare someone half to death.  I’ve heard "Scared to death," too.  Both of them seem like one of those expressions that are literally impossible - is there a word for that?  You can’t really scare someone to death, unless, I guess they have a heart attack, but then how does one measure the halfway to death point?

OK, let me give this a shot.

I believe when a person says "Scared to death," he means "scared as if to death."  Loosely translated, it means "so scared I could/should have died,"  or "so scared I thought I would die."  I think the point about the heart attack is important: one can die on the occasion of being scared, and one is comparing the current fear to that type of fatal fear.

Then there’s the transition to the metaphor: the deletion of "like" or "as" in the statement of comparison.  The person is saying: this type of fear is the fear from which one could die.  Now of course, the person really means "this is like the type of fear from which one dies," but the metaphorical comparison—"it is the fear" instead of "it is like the fear" packs a more powerful punch.

That said, now the metaphor is one that brings to mind a certain quality of fear.  The quality is no longer related to death—it’s just a quality of great frightfulness.  Thus it can be experienced in degrees (more frightful, less frightful).  So referring to the degree of fear as half as fearful as a metaphorically fatal fear (not actually fatal) is possible.

Does that work for you?

Yep, it sure does.

But here’s a question: is there any difference when someone says "I was scared half to death" and "I was scared to death"?  I think they mean the same thing - an equal level of fear.  (I know I’m quibbling…)

[quote author=dgale link=board=idiom;num=1042047303;start=0#3 date=01/08/03 at 14:24:56]Yep, it sure does.

is there any difference when someone says "I was scared half to death" and "I was scared to death"?  ...  (I know I’m quibbling…)

I think that these are both clichés, and that one person would probably use only one of the phrases; the one that is part of their spoken vocabulary, arbitrarily selected by upbringing, location or whim.

Bryn

I would say that adding ‘half’ bizarrely makes it more emphatic - I guess increasing the total number of words and making the statement even more absurd intensifies the phrase.

Perhaps being scared half to death is like the atomic half-life.  You keep getting scared half to death as life approaches death getting halfway there each time.  cf. football penalties and the calculus.

Of course, here in the Atomic City (Oak Ridge, TN), we consider that after 10 half-lifes, any material is essentially decayed away (either into another isotope or into some form of stable element).

Does this mean after ten times being scared "half-to-death" you’re essentially done?  Is this perhaps where a cat’s 9 lives come from?  Did they get cheated and start a half-life down?  ;)