Brendon Brendon 3 3 silver badges 9 9 bronze badges. I would not be terribly surprised if this is much closer to actual etymology than wikipedia's suggestions; here's etymology for two-bits: etymonline. My mother used to say and probably still does "my two bob"; bob being a slang term for shilling.
This suggests to me that there is or was regionalisation of the expression occurring to match the lowest denomination of the local currency. Two shillings seems to have been worth less than two bits though, so my mother was probably under selling her opinions. I always figured it had to do with tuppence. Brendon Two bob was a lot more than two cents, in fact the equivalent decimal amount is 10 pence which is still a lot more than two cents.
Before decimalisation a shilling was 12 old pence, there were 20 shillings to the pound and a pound was worth somewhere between 4 dollars and 1. I grew up with the British phrase being "my tuppence worth" tuppence being two pence.
I think your mother was rating her opinion quite highly! Wikipedia has only speculations that it is related to either or both of these sayings: I said a penny for your thoughts, but I got two pennies' worth If you don't put your two cents in, how can you get change? Unreason Unreason Note, though, that at the time "two penneth" came into use, a farthing an eighth of a penny was a useful coin and ha'penny would bring cheer to a beggar at Christmas.
Two cents doesn't have quite the same ring to it these days. A farthing was worth a quarter of a penny. Btw, I always thought it was related to betting: in a sense of, "A: Here is what I think B: How sure are you?
How much would you bet on it? A: 2 cents" which then turned around to "Here is my, 2 cents worth, opinion Stan: it's usually spelt "two penn'orth" and pronounced two penneth. The 'two cents' family The idiom "my two cents" is one of a number of expressions in U. Early instances of '[one's] two cents [worth]' An Elephind search of old newspapers in various archives reveals the interesting coincidence that the two earliest matches for "two cents worth" involve the price of a newspaper.
And from " The Daily Newspaper: How It Is Prepared ," in the Sunbury [Pennsylvania] American November 3, : Let him [the reader] reflect that all the appliances of art and science, the telegraph, the steam engine, and the printing press, are brought into play to give him information; that editors, reporters, and correspondents all cudgel their brains for his benefit; that, two or three hundred men have worked long and hard in order to give him his two cents' worth , and if he be not convinced, then he deserves to be placed where, he can never more see a newspaper, which of all things in this world is the great civilizer and humanizer of the race.
From " The Vatican and Peace ," in the New-York Tribune September 17, : Only a man living in an intellectual backwoods believes to-day that the Catholic Church is engaged in political intrigue.
Otis Weaver turned upon his offspring and roared: "Who asked you to put in your two cents' worth of opinion? Shut up! From " Travelling in Palestine—A Disgusted Chicagoan ," in the Macomb [Illinois] Journal July 17, : I know a Bostonian who, after spending three days in the city [of Jerusalem] and two at the Jordan and Dead Sea, hastened back to Jaffa, declaring that the whole country was not worth two cents.
You wretched child! How did you come here? You'll never guess, so I'll tell you. I came on a bean stalk. Do you know where you are? I have not the faintest idea. You are where your life is not worth two cents. Hampton a Murderer ," originally in the Methodist Advocate , reprinted in the [Cleveland, Tennessee] Weekly Herald June 7, : Hampton was fierce to execute vengeance on the so-called Lowndesville colored rioters. Conclusions As Christine Ammer observes, idiomatic U.
Community Bot 1. Sven Yargs Sven Yargs k 30 30 gold badges silver badges bronze badges. Strange that an American writing in the s about two cents' worth would also write about squeezing a sixpence when the Americans presumably hadn't used sixpences since the late 18th century.
This does show that the phrase has been used in this sense for a long time, but it doesn't explain why it was two cents that acquired that meaning. Yes, two cents has always been a fairly small amount, but one cent has always been an even smaller amount, and three cents has never been an impressive sum either. Why precisely two, rather than, say, one or three?
Daniel Bundleweed Bundleweed 1. Go see if you can scare up a reference, or a recognized expert in etymology, etc, to back up the idea. Ken Ken 1. Ken, this would be a great answer if you demonstrated your research. Davo Isn't the Biblical reference enough in this case? BoldBen It would be better with a link to this passage online somewhere, and a with quote of this passage, so that users wouldn't have to take it on faith that this is a valid quote and source, rather than someone misremembering or making up said quote.
It also reminds of the grafitti: Here I sit all broken-hearted: paid 2 pence and only farted. Tools to create your own word lists and quizzes.
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