{"id":32481,"date":"2014-05-26T00:09:43","date_gmt":"2014-05-26T07:09:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/?p=32481"},"modified":"2014-05-25T10:03:07","modified_gmt":"2014-05-25T17:03:07","slug":"origin-phrase-coin-phrase","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/index.php\/2014\/05\/origin-phrase-coin-phrase\/","title":{"rendered":"The Origin of the Phrase “Coin a Phrase”"},"content":{"rendered":"
Shannon asks: Where did the phrase “coin a phrase” come from? Thanks!<\/div>\n

\"coins\"<\/a>For those unfamiliar, \u201cto coin a phrase\u201d traditionally means \u201cto create a new phrase.\u201d These days, \u201ccoin a phrase\u201d has also taken on a new meaning, first documented around the mid-twentieth century: \u201cto introduce a clich\u00e9 sentiment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Funny enough, we have no idea who first coined the phrase \u201cto coin a phrase,\u201d but there are some clues as to how the phrase evolved.<\/p>\n

The verb \u201cto coin\u201d first came about when referring to the actual process of making money. Around the fourteenth century, the noun \u201ccoin\u201d actually meant \u201cwedge,\u201d and referred to the wedge-shaped dies that were used to stamp the disks that were then \u201ccoined,\u201d and made into official currency.<\/p>\n

From there, the verb \u201cto coin\u201d started to refer to anything that was made into something new. By the sixteenth century, coining new words became quite popular, though it wasn\u2019t always considered a positive, innovative thing. In 1589, George Puttenham wrote in The Arte of English Poesie: <\/em>“Young schollers not halfe well studied… will seeme to coigne fine wordes out of the Latin.”<\/p>\n

As you can see, some people looked down at word and phrase coiners. If you’ve ever been published on a major website, you’ll know that today a very vocal minority still feel the same way about any innovative use of grammar, creation of words, or (God-forbid) typos. \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n

The greatest of all scourges to Grammar Nazis and the snootier members of academia was Shakespeare, who ultimately came up with many different words and phrases that are still in use today. He didn\u2019t coin the phrase \u201cto coin a phrase,\u201d but he did use \u201ccoin words\u201d in 1607 in his play Coriolanus: <\/em>“So shall my Lungs Coine words till their decay.”<\/p>\n

Of course, up until this point, we\u2019ve been talking about coining words rather than phrases. \u201cTo coin a phrase\u201d popped up quite late in the game, at least the first known documented instance of it. The earliest published instance of \u201ccoin a phrase\u201d appears in The Southport American,<\/em> a newspaper in Wisconsin, in 1848:<\/p>\n

Had we to find… a name which should at once convey the enthusiasm of our feelings towards her, we would coin a phrase combining the extreme of admiration and horror and term her the Angel of Assassination.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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