{"id":6942,"date":"2021-08-12T11:51:30","date_gmt":"2021-08-12T16:51:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.webfxonline.com\/?p=6942"},"modified":"2021-08-12T11:51:32","modified_gmt":"2021-08-12T16:51:32","slug":"where-did-the-phrase-dime-a-dozen-come-from","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.webfxonline.com\/?p=6942","title":{"rendered":"Where Did the Phrase &#8220;Dime a Dozen&#8221; Come From?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>We&#8217;ve all heard the phrase &#8220;dime a dozen&#8221; before. Have you ever thought about where it came from, though? And if means the same thing now as it did in the past? Similar to phrases like &#8220;knock on wood&#8221; and &#8220;break a leg,&#8221; it has interesting origins. Read on to learn why we say this common idiom and where it came from.<img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"a hand holding a coin\" src=\"https:\/\/img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net\/tenant\/amp\/entityid\/AANasEd.img?h=533&amp;w=799&amp;m=6&amp;q=60&amp;o=f&amp;l=f\">\u00a9 Rmcarvalho\/Getty Images<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What does &#8220;dime a dozen&#8221; mean?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>This idiom means that something is easy to find or obtain. Since it&#8217;s easy to find, it doesn&#8217;t have a lot of value and is considered cheap or ordinary. Here&#8217;s how to use it in sentences:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>&#8220;During apple season, apples around here go for a dime a dozen.&#8221;<\/li><li>&#8220;A liar&#8217;s stories are worth a dime a dozen.&#8221;<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">&#8220;Dime a dozen&#8221; origins<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>After the dime was made in 1796, people started advertising goods for &#8220;a dime a dozen.&#8221; This meant you were getting a good deal on products, such as a dozen eggs. Over time, the idiom evolved to mean the opposite. Instead of something being a good deal, it became a phrase to describe something that&#8217;s not valuable and easily available. The first known use of it in this context is believed to have occurred in 1930. From there, people picked up on the phrase&#8217;s new meaning and started using it in that context.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Synonyms for this phrase include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Cheap<\/li><li>Common<\/li><li>Usual<\/li><li>Ordinary<\/li><li>Run of the mill<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Another phrase with interesting origins: no worries. Did you know it&#8217;s actually an Australianism?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Is &#8220;dime a dozen&#8221; an insult?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>It depends on how you use the phrase\u2014you can use it without malice, after all. Let&#8217;s use the examples above to discuss its different uses:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>&#8220;During apple season, apples around here go for a dime a dozen.&#8221;<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>In the case above, you&#8217;re saying that apples are common to find during apple season. Now, let&#8217;s look at the other example:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>&#8220;A liar&#8217;s stories are worth a dime a dozen.&#8221;<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>In this case, you&#8217;re saying a liar&#8217;s stories are cheap and not valuable. That&#8217;s why it&#8217;s important to use this phrase in the right context\u2014you wouldn&#8217;t want to accidentally insult someone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Next, learn why we say &#8220;spill the beans&#8221; and where it came from. Hint: one explanation comes from Ancient Greece!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>We&#8217;ve all heard the phrase &#8220;dime a dozen&#8221; before. Have you ever thought about where it came from, though? And if means the same thing now as it did in the past? Similar to phrases <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.webfxonline.com\/?p=6942\" title=\"Where Did the Phrase &#8220;Dime a Dozen&#8221; Come From?\">[read more]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6943,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-6942","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.11 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Where Did the Phrase &quot;Dime a Dozen&quot; Come From? -<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.webfxonline.com\/?p=6942\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Where Did the Phrase &quot;Dime a Dozen&quot; Come From? -\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"We&#8217;ve all heard the phrase &#8220;dime a dozen&#8221; before. 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