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H. E. Taylor
Guest
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| Posted: Fri Sep 30, 2005 7:00 am
Post subject: Source of 'the penny dropped'? |
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Salut,
Does anybody ahppen to know how this colloquialism arose?
<curious>
-het
--
"Perhaps the most deceptive aspect of globalizaton was its claim
to embody fundamental and enevitable technological developments
rather than the conscious policies of Anglo-American political
elites trying to advance the interests of their own countries at
the expense of others." -Chalmers Johnson, _The Sorrows of Empire_
Iraq War News: http://www.autobahn.mb.ca/~het/terror_war/iraqw.html
H.E. Taylor http://www.autobahn.mb.ca/~het/
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Tony Cooper
Guest
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| Posted: Fri Sep 30, 2005 7:00 am
Post subject: Re: Source of 'the penny dropped'? |
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On Thu, 29 Sep 2005 23:16:07 -0700, "H. E. Taylor"
<het@despam.autobahn.mb.ca> wrote:
| Quote: | Salut,
Does anybody ahppen to know how this colloquialism arose?
curious
-het
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That's what it cost to use the loo. When the penny dropped, you were
in.
--
Tony Cooper
Orlando, FL |
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Weatherlawyer
Guest
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| Posted: Fri Sep 30, 2005 1:44 pm
Post subject: Re: Source of 'the penny dropped'? |
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Tony Cooper wrote:
| Quote: | On Thu, 29 Sep 2005 23:16:07 -0700, "H. E. Taylor"
het@despam.autobahn.mb.ca> wrote:
Salut,
Does anybody ahppen to know how this colloquialism arose?
curious
-het
That's what it cost to use the loo. When the penny dropped, you were
in.
|
Also for other clockwork mechanisms in early "penny arcades" or
amusement centres.
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Matti Lamprhey
Guest
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| Posted: Fri Sep 30, 2005 1:52 pm
Post subject: Re: Source of 'the penny dropped'? |
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"Tony Cooper" <tony_cooper213@earthlink.net> wrote...
| Quote: | "H. E. Taylor" <het@despam.autobahn.mb.ca> wrote:
Salut,
Does anybody ahppen to know how this colloquialism arose?
curious
-het
That's what it cost to use the loo. When the penny dropped, you were
in.
|
Hmm. True, but I think this phrase owes more to other kinds of
penny-in-the-slot machines, those where the coin triggered a series of
actions such as sailors laughing, dogs cocking their legs against
policemen or vice versa, ...
Matti |
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Don Phillipson
Guest
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| Posted: Fri Sep 30, 2005 6:07 pm
Post subject: Re: Source of 'the penny dropped'? |
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"Weatherlawyer" <Weatherlawyer@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:1128066261.396172.123000@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com...
| Quote: | That's what it cost to use the loo. When the penny dropped, you were
in.
Also for other clockwork mechanisms in early "penny arcades" or
amusement centres.
|
This is a British colloquialism established before the WW2
period. At this date the single most common penny-operated
gadget was candy vending machines found on railway station
platforms and in other public places. These went out of use
when sugar was rationed in 1939 or 1940 but were still abundant
in 1950 although long disused. Most of them were designed to
sell small chocolate bars for 2d. or 3d. I.e. when the last
penny dropped the mechanism would operate.
--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada) |
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John Dean
Guest
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| Posted: Fri Sep 30, 2005 6:40 pm
Post subject: Re: Source of 'the penny dropped'? |
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Matti Lamprhey wrote:
| Quote: | "Tony Cooper" <tony_cooper213@earthlink.net> wrote...
"H. E. Taylor" <het@despam.autobahn.mb.ca> wrote:
Salut,
Does anybody ahppen to know how this colloquialism arose?
curious
-het
That's what it cost to use the loo. When the penny dropped, you were
in.
Hmm. True, but I think this phrase owes more to other kinds of
penny-in-the-slot machines, those where the coin triggered a series of
actions such as sailors laughing, dogs cocking their legs against
policemen or vice versa, ...
|
The penny machine explanation sounds plausible to me (and Lord knows, I
actually remember operating such in an arcade many years ago) but then
so do all folk etymologies. With those machines, the penny dropping was
the default mode - you put the coin in the slot and the machine did its
thing (I remember a haunted house and a public execution as but two of
the delights of a 1950s North Walian arcade).
Whereas "waiting for the penny to drop" or "at last the penny dropped"
suggests a delay between an event and its understanding. I shall dig
further, but I suspect there is some other explanation.
--
John Dean
Oxford |
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Mike Lyle
Guest
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| Posted: Fri Sep 30, 2005 10:23 pm
Post subject: Re: Source of 'the penny dropped'? |
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John Dean wrote:
[...]
| Quote: | The penny machine explanation sounds plausible to me (and Lord
knows,
I actually remember operating such in an arcade many years ago) but
then so do all folk etymologies. With those machines, the penny
dropping was the default mode - you put the coin in the slot and
the
machine did its thing (I remember a haunted house and a public
execution as but two of the delights of a 1950s North Walian
arcade).
Whereas "waiting for the penny to drop" or "at last the penny
dropped"
suggests a delay between an event and its understanding. I shall
dig
further, but I suspect there is some other explanation.
|
Don't you remember how frustrating it was when the penny got stuck?
Sometimes you just had to wait a little, and at other times you had
to do violence to the machine before you heard the penny dropping,
and whatever it was started happening. I know it's a plausible
explanation, but that doesn't make it unlikely!
(And, in any case, I'm not sure that folk etymologies _do_ generally
seem plausible; though I can't think of more than a couple of
examples just now. So here's one for the expression under
consideration. Charles I was famous for his stinginess -- he was,
after all, of Scots origin. In those days, it was the custom to tip
one's executioner to ensure a high standard of service. It was also
customary to say one's final prayers, make an Act of Contrition, like
that, as near to the Fatal Stroke as possible, to allow The Devil and
All His Works the minimum time to resume getting stuck in on one's
soul. The deal was that the client would hang onto the tip while he
said his prayers, and then let go as a signal to the functionary that
he might proceed to do his duty, and then pick up the specie. Most
self-respecting executees would tip the Man a sov; but in King and
Martyr Chucky's case, all that dropped was a penny. Ironically, the
royal pruner extraordinary was so outraged by such parsimony that he
let go the most violent hack of his career, dispatching HM with unpre
cedented, er, dispatch. So C. Stuart's investment was after all a
sound one, and a phrase was born.)
--
Mike. |
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H. E. Taylor
Guest
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| Posted: Mon Oct 03, 2005 2:23 am
Post subject: Re: Source of 'the penny dropped'? |
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In article <a4a%e.4637$5I2.17065@newscontent-01.sprint.ca>,
<d.phillipson@ttrryytteell.com> Don Phillipson wrote:
| Quote: | "Weatherlawyer" <Weatherlawyer@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:1128066261.396172.123000@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com..
[lost attribution]
That's what it cost to use the loo. When the penny dropped, you were
in.
Also for other clockwork mechanisms in early "penny arcades" or
amusement centres.
This is a British colloquialism established before the WW2
period. At this date the single most common penny-operated
gadget was candy vending machines found on railway station
platforms and in other public places. These went out of use
when sugar was rationed in 1939 or 1940 but were still abundant
in 1950 although long disused. Most of them were designed to
sell small chocolate bars for 2d. or 3d. I.e. when the last
penny dropped the mechanism would operate.
|
Thank you to Don and the several others who answered.
I am young enough that I have never seen a coin operated
anything that works with a penny.  )>
<regards>
-het
--
"Ideas are like rabbits. You get a couple and learn how to handle
them, and pretty soon you have a dozen." -John Steinbeck
How's yer crap detector? http://www.autobahn.mb.ca/~het/detector.html
H.E. Taylor http://www.autobahn.mb.ca/~het/ |
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