Wednesday, January 17, 2018

Wednesday's Random Slang-o-rama: Bet you a million to a bit of dirt

Now here's one that is probably easier to guess at than last week's "I'll give you Jim Smith." --

Bet you a million to a bit of dirt.

Heck, you probably don't need a whole lot of time to ponder such a transparent phrase...
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Time's a-wastin', so here's the definition, courtesy of Passing English of the Victorian Era: A Dictionary of Heterodox English, Slang, and Phrase by J. Redding Ware (1909):

Bet you a million to a bit of dirt (Sporting, 19th cent.). The thing is so sure that there can be no uncertainty. The betting man's Ultima Thule of confidence.

(For those of you, who like me, are thinking Ultima what? I looked it up. Dictionary.com explains ultima Thule is Latin for "the highest degree obtainable." You're welcome!)

If the fellow on the other side of the table says he'll "bet you a million to a bit of dirt," it's time to fold (or maybe he's bluffing...). Image from: Detroit Publishing Company Collection, Photography Collection, Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundation



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11 comments:

  1. LizJanuary 17, 2018 at 10:19 AM

    Once again you set me researching due to a vague recollection of an island. Ultimate Thule was first used by a Greek to denote a land beyond the known world. Your definition is more appropriate, but I'm left wondering what book I read about that island.

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  2. Ann ParkerJanuary 17, 2018 at 11:57 AM

    Hi Liz!
    An island! Interesting! I can see where the two definitions/uses might merge. Hmmm. Now *I'm* wondering what book you read that mentioned Ultimate Thule! :-) Be sure to share when you figure it out...

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  3. LizJanuary 17, 2018 at 12:09 PM

    Misspelled or spell check did. Ultima.

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  4. LizJanuary 17, 2018 at 12:18 PM

    Mentioned in epilogue of Mary Stewart's Madam, Will You Talk? Sure to have looked up. But another dystopian novel? Not my typical reading. More thinking.

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  5. Ann ParkerFebruary 2, 2018 at 4:43 PM

    Serendipity, Liz! I read Madam, Will You Talk? for a book club just last year... I shall have to look that up!

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  6. LizFebruary 6, 2018 at 6:32 AM

    Also Edgar Allan Poe's Dream Land.

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  7. LizMarch 23, 2018 at 9:36 AM

    Thinking maybe Children of Men by P. D. James.

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  8. Ann ParkerApril 1, 2018 at 9:55 PM

    Sounds like this isn't such an uncommon term after all. :-)
    I'll have to track down the Poe story... I'm sure I would have that in one or another of my Poe collections...
    Thanks, Liz!

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  9. LizDecember 30, 2018 at 2:17 PM

    Ages since this post but just saw BBC article on NASA's New Horizon fly-by of Ultima Thule on Tuesday. January 1, 2019.

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  10. Ann ParkerDecember 31, 2018 at 5:18 PM

    Hi Liz! Isn't that cool?? My brother (astronomer Joel Parker) and his spouse Kim Hansen are back east (at NASA, I think?) right now to celebrate the fly-by. Joel worked on New Horizons.

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  11. Liz V.January 1, 2019 at 11:06 AM

    Wow. Passed along to my friend whose daughter has interned there two summers. Don't know whether she or her roommate is there today. How cool would that be. Small world, huge universe.

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