[Idiom] I spy with my little eye

[kadioguy]

I spy is a guessing game where the Spy or It says "I spy with my little eye..." and players have to guess the object the Spy saw.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_spy
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Why not "I spy with my little eyes..."?

We normally have two eyes, don't we?

 

[SoothingDave]

We normally look through a spyglass with one.

 

[kadioguy]

I spy is a guessing game where the Spy or It says "I spy with my little eye..."

What does 'It' here mean?
Why not 'he or she'?

 

[emsr2d2]

The person whose turn it is in some games is commonly called "It". There's a playground game we used to play at school which was called either "It", "Had" or "Tag" (there are lots of other names for it). A group of people run around trying to avoid being touched by the person who is "It". Once someone else has been touched, they become "It" and they then start to chase the rest of the group and try to touch someone else.

In "I-Spy", the person whose turn it is to spy something and get the others to guess it, can be called "It".

 

[bubbha]

Yes, in games like tag, the person who has to try to tag (touch) the other players is called "it". It's the equivalent to the Chinese 鬼 (ghost) as used in similar children's games.

"Tag! You're it!"