Wednesday's Random Slang-o-rama: A day late and a dollar short

 Well, I'm more than a day late and a dollar short on this post, but thanks to Blogger I can pre-date this entry so it appears I put it up Wednesday, March 27. However, I will confess that, as I type this, it is much later in the week....

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A day late and a dollar short sounds like a lament that could have originated at any time in history that the word "dollar" was in use... maybe even in the 1800s. The Grammarist has a post on this idiom, and says (amongst other things):

...Originally, the phrase a day late and a dollar short most probably referred to not having enough money to avail oneself of something. The oldest known use of the phrase a day late and a dollar short in print was in 1939. The idiom was most certainly in common use before this, and probably has its roots in the general poverty common among most American citizens during the Great Depression. The idiom is very popular in the American South....

And, folks, that's about all I can find about this phrase (much to my surprise). I guess I will have to accept that although a day late and a dollar short might "fly" in fiction taking place in the 1920s, it wouldn't for anything set in the 19th century.

Darn it.

Wiktionary definition of a day late and a dollar short:
"Too late and too feeble to achieve the desired effect."
 Image by heeyeon Sun from Pixabay