It was answered on Ask.Metafilter:
Like danb indicates, it's nautical
slang. A four hour watch consists of
eight half hour bells - seven bells is
almost all the way.
The OED: "In Naut. slang phrs. to
knock seven bells out of (someone): to
beat (someone) severely; similarly, to
scare seven bells out of: to terrify."
Edit: the earliest reference I found is Na motu: or, Reef-rovings in the South seas by Edward T. Perkins in 1854:
"I suppose there were a hundred look-outs
between the night-heads, does that
give you any right to disobey orders?
My orders are, that no man shall sleep
on watch. I'da mind, when I first
began, to make an example of you ; but
bear it in mind, that if I ever catch
you at it again, I'll knock seven
bells out of you ! Go ' long ; I've
done with you."
There are a lot nautical references from the 19th century. Wikipedia has a good article on the eight ship's bells.
Edit 2: The Royal Navy's guide to Navy slang says:
To Knock Seven Bells out of a Man
An old naval expression for the giving
of a sound thrashing (the nautical
equivalent of "Knocking a man for six"
[a cricketing term]); presumably to
knock all eight bells out of a man
would be to kill him!
Edit 3: "seven shades of" is much more recent. Here are some of the earliest references I found:
- W. T. Tyler's 1982 Rogue's March: "kick seven shades of shit"
- W. L. Ed Webb's 1985 The Bedside Guardian 34: "Does thou want seven shades of shit kicked out of thee?"
- June 1989 SPIN magazine: "kicked up seven shades of hell"
- 1994 British journal of photography: Volume 141: "beat seven shades [of hell]"
- Robin Jarvis's 2010 Dancing Jax: "He'd best hope the police find him before I do because I will personally kick seven shades out of him."
Partridge
Partridge's A Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English (2002) says:
into (a person) for (a sum of money), be. To owe a person so-much, to have let him down for a stated amount: Can, coll.: late C. 19-20. John Bearnes, Gateway, 1932, He's into me for ninety dollars, and I can't get a cent out of him.'
Where Can coll. is Canadian colloquial. The 2007 edition more simply says:
into preposition 1 in debt to, US, 1893
"... into me for ..."
Diving into Google Books, here's a possible 1902 from the American Ainslee's Magazine, Volume 10, Issues 1-6:
"Old man," confided Bill, after explaining the situation, "I need just a dollar and ten cents. Let me have it, like a good fellow." "But, Bill," replied Reece, hesitatingly, "you're into me for fifty dollars already."
And a definite 1903 from Arthur Morris Binstead's Pitcher in Paradise: Some Random Reminiscences, Sporting and Otherwise, published in London:
Two unplaced's an' one second, an' damme, she was into me for thirty-eight quid ! Stupid ? Aye, laad, even the bloomin' clerk rounded on me !
Here's a possible 1890 in Puck magazine which may be using a with a pun on the phrase:
"You 've got into me for all I 'm worth," remarked the Stocking to the Jumping-Jack. "All the same, I'm in a hole," replied the Jumping-Jack. And when Santa Claus heard them talking in that way, he broke the Jumping-Jack and took the ...
Walked and dribbled
Here's an interesting one from a possibly 1903 Pearson's Magazine:
He has dribbled into me for a thousand if he's had a cent, and now he must pay back by taking a chance.
Dribbling can also be found in the possibly 1917 Norsk-Engelsk Ordbog:
summer little sums ; cont driblets, petty sums. Cold has dribbled into me for a thousand ;
And finally, these two have walked into me for a [sum], which could be part of the same phrase.
Best Answer
OED
The Oxford English Dictionary defines far out as:
Their first quotation is an 8th November 1954 Time Magazine article entitled "Far-Out Words for Cats":
1940s
We can see this term beginning to emerge in Simon Michael Bessie's 1938 book Jazz Journalism: The Story of the Tabloid Newspapers:
Whilst the book is about tabloid papers and not jazz, it shows "far out" being applied to something novel and possibly avant-garde.
Here's Esquire's 1946 Jazz Book applying it to jazz of the most progressive kind:
Here's another snippet, from a 1947 The Jazz Record:
And from the next page:
These may not be the exact use of the phrase, but give an indication of how it came around.
1954
It appears to have used as a set term in a publication of the South Dakota State University sometime in 1954:
Billboard of 24 April 1954 reviews Les Elgart Orchestra's song "East is East":
Billboard of 26 June 1954 reviews Serena Shaw's "St. Louis Blues":
The same November 8, 1954 Time Magazine cited by the OED had another article that used: