Hard Idioms

Several words have become part of the language in being used in phrases. Last time we looked at ‘French’ and now look at ‘hard’

Hard of hearing is a reminder of the other and earlier use of ‘hard’, as in ‘difficult’; this seen from the beginning of the 13th century.

Hard liquor also uses the original sense, the term seen from 1789 (when the phrase is actually ‘hard cider’).

Hard drugs, like ‘hard liquor’, uses the earlier sense, although this term is not recorded before 1955.

Hard facts is first seen in 1853.

Hard news is a journalistic phrase first seen in 1918.

Hard copy – printed rather than electronic – comes from 1964.

Hard disk is first documented in 1978.

Hard drive appears six years later than the above in 1983.

Hard rock, the musical reference and not any geological term, is first seen in 1967. Sadly I could not find which act first earned this appellation, although despite his name it won’t have been Neil Diamond.

Hard times is first documented in 1705, this reference to a period of poverty also used as a title for the 1854 novel by Charles Dickens. (And I’ll read it when he reads one of mine.)

Hard cash originally referred to solid coin rather than bankers’ drafts (first) and paper money (later). Indeed, ‘hard money’ was the original term, this seen from 1706.

Nobody played hard to get until 1945 – and I won’t comment on loose morals, as this is not the meaning here at all.

Nobody did anything the hard way until as recently as 1907.

Hard-hearted was first used to describe people like me in the early 13th century.

Nobody was said to be hard-working until 1708.

Hard-line was first used to describe Soviet communist policies in 1958.

Hard-wired was first used in 1969 in reference to computers, but two years later had also been used to refer to the human brain.

Hard-boiled eggs were first described in 1723, later used in the sense of ‘tough’ from 1886.

Hard-cover books were first described in 1949, which makes perfect sense as although books had hard covers since early days of writing, they were simply ‘books’ until the paperback version appeared and required clarity. However, they took their time, for the first paperbacks appeared in 1841, although not until 1934 did Albatross and Penguin produce paperbacks.

Hard-bitten was used from 1715 to mean ‘tough in a fight’, earlier still to describe hunting dogs.

Hard fought first appears around 1660.

Hard-up, as in financial difficulties, is seen from 1821.

Hard-headed, as an insult, was first used in 1520.

Hard-nosed, or stubborn, first appears in 1927.

Nobody wore a hard hat until 1935, but then it was only used to refer to a Derby and not the helmet of today.

Hardwoods are known as such from 1560.

Die-hard, no not the non-Christmas film but one who is deemed difficult to defeat, is recorded in 1844 to describe the 57th Regiment of Foot of the British Army, and later as an adjective from 1871. Incidentally, there is also a DieHard, - no, not the film(s) – this is a brand of car battery introduced in 1967.

And if you’ve got this far and wondered why I haven’t discussed the hard-on, it’s because nobody had until 1893.

Money Idioms

Several words have found themselves used in a number of phrases. We looked at 'ball' last time and this time it's 'money'.

Your money or your life, is apparently how every highwayman in history confronted his (or her) victims. Yet it is not until 1774 that the first written evidence of the phrase is used.

In the money, describing someone as rich, originally referred to any competitor who finished a race or competition in a place where they won a prize and is first recorded in 1902.

Nobody put their money where their mouth was until 1942.

Money burned a hole in one's pocket as early as 1520, albeit correctly the phrase then included 'purse' instead of 'pocket'.

Money lenders were first recorded in 1765.

Money orders have been available since 1802.

Money maker is first seen in the 13th century when it really did refer to one who made (or minted) coin. By 1864 it had become used to refer to one who accumulates wealth, and the modern sense of 'to yield a profit' is first seen in 1899.

Money pit, something which swallows up cash as fast as it is thrown at it, is not recorded as a phrase until 1986 - the same year as a film of that name was released. The term had been used before, but in 1930 it was simply a pit found where a notorious pirate was held to have hidden his ill-gotten gains.

Smart money, cash used by those with prior information on a deal or bet, is first seen in 1926. However, the phrase is seen much earlier, for in 1760 it referred to money paid to buy the freedom of a recruit; and earlier still in 1690 it described cash paid to a sailor, soldier or other worker who had been disabled while employed.

Hush money, a bribe paid to get someone to keep their mouth closed on a subject, is first seen in 1709.

Etymology of Ancient Currencies

Last month I looked at the etymologies of contemporary currencies and those recently superceded by the introduction of the euro. However there are many which have come and gone in history and they must also have an origin.

Lydia was a region in what is now western Turkey. They used the stater, a coin used in many parts of Greece. Made from electrum and silver, its name translates quite literally as 'weight'.

The ancient Persians used the gold coin known as the daric. The daric was introduced by Darius the Great of Persia during his reign of 522BC to 486BC. The figure depicted with a bow and arrow is either a great warrior or a king, their identity is unclear. What is clear is, despite the seemingly obvious naming of the daric from Darius, in reality it comes from a Persian word for 'gold'.

Ancient Greeks had the drachma. This term is ultimately from the ancient Greek verb drassomai meaning 'to grasp' and evolved to mean 'fistful'.

The Roman Empire used a number of coins. One is known to modern numismatists as the antoninianus, several documents refer to coins named after one Antoninus, although they have no notion as to the coin's appearance, nor do they know what name was given to the coin they now know by this name. The same is true of the follis, the etymology and the actual name is unknown. The argenteus was a silver coin with a name which meant 'silver' in Latin, similarly the aureus was a gold coin whose name meant 'golden'. The denarius is derived from the Latin deni or 'containing ten' as it was equal to ten asses, these being bronze (later copper) coins, and related to the Greek assarion and understood as 'a part thereof'. Latin dupondius describes itself as a 'two pounder'. The follis took its name from the word meaning 'bag' and usually of leather, suggesting the original value of same was an amount contained within said bag. A sesterius was equal to two and half asses, the name means 'two and a half'. The gold solidus is not difficult to see as meaning 'solid'. A talent began as a unit of mass, the name meaning 'balance, scale', which readily transferred to a coin of a certain weight.

Ancient Israeli coins begin with the gerah, derived from Aramaic word which translates as 'money'. We also find the prutah, which spoke of itself as being 'a coin of lesser value'. The best known coin is probably the shekel, equivalent to an Akkadian and/or Sumerian unit of weight first recorded over four thousand years ago. Lastly is the zuz, a word meaning 'to move' and suggesting a redistribution of wealth.

Brazilians once valued their cruzeiros, the name describing the constellation of the Southern Cross.

Peru had the inti, named after the Incan sun god Inti.

In China the tael was a unit of weight before it became a monetary value, this being a Portguese adaptation of a Malay word meaning 'weight'.

Ukranians once dealt in karbovanets, a word of doubtful etymology which has been said to describe the way these smaller value denominations were carved around the rim of a metal rouble or of a rod on which such coinage was recorded.

Montenegro saw the introduction of the perun in 1851. This was named after Perun, a supreme god of Slavic mythology.

Ecuador used to deal in the sucre until 2000. This monetary value was named after Antonia Jose de Sucre, the Venezueland independence leader and close friend of Simon Bolivar.

In Guinea between 1971 and 1985 banks issued various denominations of syli. The 10 denomation note featured Patrice Lumumba on the obverse, the reverse depicted a group of people carrying bananas; 25 saw a man smoking a pipe on one side, and a man with cows on the back; 50 and a bearded man is shown, turn it over to find a large dam and reservoir; while the 100 denomination note had Ahmed Sekou Toure on the front, and a steam shovel with two trucks on the reverse. Oddly none of these notes feature the 'elephant', which is what syli translates as.

Back to the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and the Democratic Republic of Congo had the Katanga Cross. Made from copper it was named from the Katanga region where much copper was mined. However it is not the name but the extraordinary form this coinage took. As the name tells us this was not a coin as we would recognise it, this was an X-shaped ingot. Furthermore the size of these things was little short of astoonishing for coinage, although produced in various sizes, these were typically 20cms across and weighed a pocket-bursting kilogram each. Tossing these must be a nightmare!

Strictly Cash Terms

Recently I came across a word I had (thankfully) never heard before. However it was clear from the adverisement that wonga meant cash, coin of the realm, currency, money. Momentarily baffled as to why such a grotesque noise should ever be considered worthy of use, it did get me thinking of other slang terms for money, some of which I will admit to having used myself, albeit sparingly, I also found many more than I had never encountered.

ackers - used in the United Kingdom it is one of several which was brought back to the homeland from colonial days. It is derived from the Egyptian akka, itself having many uses as a personal name, even a tribal one, yet seems to have its earliest reference as the triangular object on the Great Pyramid of the pharaoh Khuffu or Khuvu.

bob - some will still recall pre-decimal currency in the United Kingdom when pounds were divided into twenty shillings. Most often the shilling was known as a 'bob', which is first recorded in the early nineteenth century, while the origin is obscure.

brass - is one of the most obvious origins, it simply refers to the colour of the coinage.

buck - is in use for the American dollar by 1856. The origin is uncertain but thought to have originated as an abbreviation of 'buckskin', the basic unit of trade between Native Americans and European settlers in the early frontier days.

coppers - as with other names, this is a simple reference to the colour of some of the coins.

deaner - is another term for a shilling, not one I had ever heard before, but is certainly a mis-spelling of 'dinar', from Greek denarius, and seen as currency across North Africa, parts of the Middle East and as far north as Yugoslavia.

dibs - is used for small amounts of money. It is short for dibstones, the pebbles or counters used in the game played with knucklebones.

dough - may be a slang term today, however in the Middle English term dogh, from Germanic dag, did indeed mean 'money'.

folding stuff - one of the less imaginative terms, clearly this only refers to paper money.

fin - is applied to the £5 but the origin is obscure, suggestions of an abbreviation for 'finance' seem contrived.

gelt - is a Yiddish word, from Old High German gelt meaning 'recompense, reward'.

greenback - obviously the colour of the dollar bill.

joey - referred to the old silver threepence, the etymology is unknown but is referred to as such in George Orwell's Keep the Aspidistras Flying.

monkey - is a term for £500, it is held to be derived from the image of the monkey on the Indian 500 rupee note and brought back the Britain by soldiers who had served there.

nicker - a reference to a pound sterling, although the origin is unkown.

pony - as with the term 'monkey' a term brought back from India, this image on the 25 rupee note and describing £25.

quid - is the most commonly used term for a pound (also once used for a guinea). Almost certainly from Latin quid simply 'something'. First known usage is in 1688 when Shadwell writes "Let me equip thee with a quid" showing it must have been in popular use even then.

sou - is from the Old French sou a former French coin of minimal value.

tanner - is another name derived from the days of the British influence in India. At the time a rupee was roughly equal to a shilling, the rupee comprised sixteen annas and thus half a rupee was eight anna. Easy to see how half a shilling could also be seen as 'eight anna' or 'a tanner'.

It is claimed there are only two other subjects which have more slang terms than money - drink I may look at some time in the future (alcoholic, of course), but euphemisms for sex and the various acts is not for blogging.
(I should be able to get at least one book out of it!)