Which of these idioms is correct?

Question

Which of the following two are the correct usage of the phrase?

"Look on the bright side."

" "Look at the bright side."

^ here it reads "On the bright side" is the correct idiom, but I just heard someone use "At the bright side" not over 3 minutes ago. ._.)

For all intensive purposes people sometimes write idioms slightly incorrectly. The correct one is "look on the bright side". To quote someone from a forum thread on this topic: "I think "at" is probably wrong, and the accepted set phrase is definitely "look on the bright side". I think it is because one is not looking at a concrete "bright side" but it is somewhat akin to a general location or direction, as in "look on the left", or "look on the top"." — John Clifford, Mar 14 '16 at 13:08
@JohnClifford did you type that wrong intentionally? The correct phrase is "For all intents and purposes". It is a common error. — Catija♦, Mar 14 '16 at 13:47

Peter · Accepted Answer · 2016-03-14 14:15:07Z

0

The usual phrasing of the idiom you are interested in is

Look on the bright side

which asks the listener to consider more positive meaning in a bad situation.

A popular example can be found here

Look at the bright side

may have the same intent as

(If you) look at the facts
(If you) look at the bright side

which tells the listener there are more positive meanings.

Look upon the bright side

might also be used in a more poetic style and still have the same meaning.

answered Mar 14 '16 at 14:15

Peter

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loc.gov/resource/sm1877.00067.0/?sp=4 "Look upon" is archaic I think. A quick search only turns up instances from the 1800s. – ColleenV parted ways Mar 14 '16 at 14:43
Behold the bright side! – Era Mar 14 '16 at 18:03

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