Hi this is Tutor Nick P and this is Idioms 35 and the idiom today is to turn
a blind eye to something. Now actually this is the first idiom that I'm
actually doing over and the main reason I'm doing it over is because I
discovered that the idiom has a very cool origin to it and I think it
deserves to be included in it. So let's just get right into it. Let's take a look
at the note here. If someone turns a blind eye to something, he or she
willfully or deliberately... so on purpose ignores or looks the other way.
You know, pretends they do not see in regard to something that one is supposed
to be responsible for or be responsible to correct or rules or orders one is
supposed to follow, especially if it's part of one's job or if it's part of
one's duty or responsibility. So in that particular case, you're kind of turning a
blind eye to. You're pretending, well I didn't see it. No. It's okay. I didn't see
it. So I don't have to do anything about it. All right. Let's continue. The origin of
this phrase goes all the way back to 1801 during the Battle of Copenhagen.
According to legend, a British naval Admiral Horatio Nelson who was blind or
visually impaired in one eye ... so he really couldn't see in one eye. Purposely
disobeyed an order he didn't want to follow.
Nelson's ships were up against a Danish- Norwegian fleet and a superior officer...
so an officer that's above him, flagged for him to withdraw. To like get out of
here. Don't do the battle. Just run away. Leave or you know, sail away. Let's not
battle you know, maybe it's too dangerous. You're probably going to lose. He didn't
want to do that. Nelson not wanting to do it supposedly
used his telescope with his bad eye and proclaimed I really do not see that
signal. So he you know he picked it up.. like say this is his bad eye. And
he picked it up. Uh you know, I I don't see it. I don't see it. Where is it ? You
know, so he said that he did not see the signal. So let's continue. He went on to
fight the battle and had a great victory. Thus the phrase to turn a blind eye to
something was born . So I guess this was his way of trying to get out of it.
Pretending like well I really didn't disobey the order because I didn't see
it. I looked at it with... I looked... I used my bad eye to look through the telescope. So
I really didn't see it. All right. Well it's a good thing he won. If it didn't win
he might have been in trouble. Well if he didn't win he might have been dead
anyway. Okay. Let's continue here. We got three different examples for this.
Example number one. That political party falsely accused a politician in the
opposing, the opposite party of corruption, while turning a blind eye to
obvious political corruption within their own party. Yeah. Their own party
definitely has really very obvious political corruption. But now let's not
look at that. Let's pretend that doesn't exist. Let's just accuse the other party..
Or number two here. That university should have expelled this student for
cheating, but they turned a blind eye to it because the boy's father is a huge
donor to the school. So maybe he often gives a lot of money to the school. So
they said, " Okay let's pretend nothing happened. "
Let's turn a blind eye to it. All right. And number three here.
You cannot just turn a blind eye to your son's addiction. Well whatever it was a
drug addiction or alcohol addiction or whatever type of addiction and pretend
it does not exist. You must find a way to help him overcome it. Yeah. Sometimes
people don't want to face it. So in that sense they just pretended they don't
exist. They turn a blind eye to it, even though they are aware of it.
Okay. Anyway, I hope you got it. I hope you enjoyed it. I hope it was informative. Thank
you for your time. Bye-bye.