idioms - "Shoot, it was a great day to be alive"——What does this sentence mean?

It is from the Oxford Dictionary, under it's entry for shoot:

Shoot, it was a great day to be alive.

What does this sentence mean? What is the speaker saying in this sentence?

I am confused by "it was a great day to be alive"; is the speaker feeling happy, lucky or grateful?

What does alive mean in this sentence?

Answer

"It is/was a great day to be alive" simply means that the speaker believes that this particular day was a day that he enjoyed. That is, he is glad that he was alive on this particular day. It's a fairly common phrase used to express joy about some event or experience. It is used to describe all sorts of events, from things very personal to things very general.

Like, "I looked out over the beautiful fields, filled with flowers, and the majestic mountain towering in the distance. It was a great day to be alive."

"I just head on the news that the war is over. People are pouring out into the streets to celebrate. This is a great day to be alive."

"Today we have all sorts of conveniences to make our lives more pleasant, from the automobile to television to microwave ovens. This is a great day to be alive."

It does not normally mean that the speaker has narrowly escaped death or anything like that.

"Shoot" is simply an interjection, a word used to intensify an expression. It is a very mild word. It can be positive or negative. "Shoot, I lost my pencil." Or, "Shoot, my favorite TV show is on." If used in more extreme situations it is seen as quaint or a deliberate under-playing. You wouldn't normally expect someone to say, "Shoot, the doctor just told me I have only three weeks to live." If someone did, you'd either take that to mean that he was deliberately downplaying the seriousness of the issue, or that he is someone who is particularly mild-mannered or who does not use strong language.