Submitted 1 day ago by Necrifyre@piefed.blahaj.zone to [deleted]
How soon will the phrase "by the penny" lose its value since the penny itself is no longer produced?
Because the phrase ‘by the penny’ is implied that whatever it is, will squeeze all the value out down to the singular digit, because the penny has a value of 1 cent as we all know. However, with the penny no longer in production, how soon can we expect a time where nobody will say “by the penny”?
I have never heard that phrase used and im over 50.
Maybe they meant “to the penny/cent”
I don’t even really recognize that unless like down to the penny as in being exacting.
Probably a while. People still say “roll up the window” even though most haven’t “rolled” up for close to 10-20 years now.
tbf I feel like it’s appropriate for the upwards motion of a car window, and I can’t think of a better alternative, nor have I ever heard one
I like to imagine that inside the car door the window is stored in a roll. Of course that reverses the normal meaning of “roll up” since in this case the roll is at the bottom, unlike blinds or toilet paper.
The save icon still tends to be a floppy disk, so I’d say you have a while yet
Probably two or three generations after those who actually handled pennies, but then again it wouldn't be the first time an old phrase or usage fossilised and remained in a language long after its full meaning has been obscured by time.
One example that springs to mind is the "ut" of "utmost". It's an old spelling of "out", but the word has stuck around because "out(er)most" means something else.
It already happened
The UK still makes pennies.
How long did it take before references to ha’penny (pronounced haypenny, short for half penny) stopped after those were phased out?
There’s a song I know of that mentions them and that’s it. They were in use starting in 1672 and phased out in the 1970s, so a hugely long time, yet they are never mentioned anymore despite being in use during modern lifetimes.
Perhaps people from the UK hear the word more often, but I basically never come across it in media or anything, even period pieces.
(“Christmas is coming, the good is getting fat, please to put a penny in an old man’s hat. If you haven’t got a penny, a ha’penny will do, if you haven’t got a hatpenny than god bless you”)
crandall@lemmy.today 1 day ago
Never heard this expression tbh, where is it used? The UK maybe?
sanguinepar@lemmy.world 1 day ago
UK here, not an expression I recognise either. “By the pound”, yes, but that’s a unit of weight rather than currency.