Idioms, often a mystery to me when younger are a way of speaking that is both colorful and ancient.
ON LANGUAGE; You Pays Yer Money
By WILLIAM SAFIRE
Published: February 28, 1988
YOU PAYS YER mon-ey and you takes yer choice,'' I wrote in this space recently, using what I assumed to be an old Americanism meaning, as the oddsmakers say, ''Pick 'em.''
Mark Twain used the saying in 1884, at the end of chapter 28 of ''Huckleberry Finn,'' I am informed by Richard Bliss of New York City: ''. . . here's your two sets o' heirs to old Peter Wilks - and you pays your money and you takes your choice!''
The origin, as dozens of other Lexicographic Irregulars stepped forward to say, is British, probably Cockney. The first time the saying saw print was in an 1846 Punch. A cartoon entitled ''The Ministerial Crisis'' has a showman telling a customer, ''Which ever you please, my little dear. You pays your money, and you takes your choice.''
rest of the article here:
http://www.nytimes.com/1988/02/28/magazine/on-language-you-pays-yer-money.html
What idioms do you like?
ON LANGUAGE; You Pays Yer Money
By WILLIAM SAFIRE
Published: February 28, 1988
YOU PAYS YER mon-ey and you takes yer choice,'' I wrote in this space recently, using what I assumed to be an old Americanism meaning, as the oddsmakers say, ''Pick 'em.''
Mark Twain used the saying in 1884, at the end of chapter 28 of ''Huckleberry Finn,'' I am informed by Richard Bliss of New York City: ''. . . here's your two sets o' heirs to old Peter Wilks - and you pays your money and you takes your choice!''
The origin, as dozens of other Lexicographic Irregulars stepped forward to say, is British, probably Cockney. The first time the saying saw print was in an 1846 Punch. A cartoon entitled ''The Ministerial Crisis'' has a showman telling a customer, ''Which ever you please, my little dear. You pays your money, and you takes your choice.''
rest of the article here:
http://www.nytimes.com/1988/02/28/magazine/on-language-you-pays-yer-money.html
What idioms do you like?
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