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  What it means

  Literally “even if you gouge out an eye,” this idiom describes extreme darkness — a place so dark you can’t see anything at all. Poles use it to describe a room with the lights off, a moonless night outside, or any setting where visibility is zero. It’s the Polish equivalent of saying “pitch black” or “you can’t see your hand in front of your face.”

  Vocabulary

  • choć — even if / although
  • oko — eye (accusative: oko)
  • wykol — (archaic/colloquial) gouge out, poke out — from wykłuć
  • wykłuć — to poke out, to gouge (perfective)

  Grammar note

  The phrase uses the conditional/concessive particle 'choć' ('even if') followed by a short imperative-like form 'wykol', an archaic second-person singular imperative of 'wykłuć'. The object 'oko' is in the accusative case, as is standard for direct objects with transitive verbs.

  Cultural context

  This is an everyday colloquial expression with a slightly dramatic, hyperbolic flavor. It carries no negative connotations — Poles say it casually when fumbling for a light switch. There is no specific regional usage; it is understood across Poland.

  Intermediate

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