And here's another typical example of me getting distracted ...
All I wanted to do is compose a Dutch email for some colleagues at work. (The subject being of no importance whatsoever).
I wanted, however, to start off with an English phrase which sprung to mind (don't ask me why):
"Here's my sixpence worth"
Wanting to be accurate .. and as my memory isn't what it used to be, I wanted to look up the exact meaning (expecting questions from my colleagues).
So the first thing I did was check some online dictionaries I use:
.. and I find no mention of the (meaning of the) phrase.
So then I Googled on (see below) and was surprised to find how little mention is made of the meaning of this phrase.
Strange as the phrase seems common enough (judging by the amount of results returned). The best result I found was the following (although it still doesn't fully explain the meaning):
I therefore make it my business to give the meaning of the phrase:
"Here's my sixpence worth" = "For what it's worth"
Or possibly a better explanation is: "It's up to you to decide what you think of this, but at least I've had my say".
That still leaves one intriguing question: what's the origin of this phrase?
I could go on about this at length (a sixpence used to be a day's pay whereas it wasn't worth much more recently) but I have found no conclusive etymology (I'm showing off now with big words).
So ... if you can tell me where its from ... please ... convince me !
Right, I'd better get on with that email to my colleagues.
Gegroet. Paul.
PS: an interesting reference to (part of) the phrase is given in "The life of Samuel Johnson" by James Boswell.
PPS: another interesting site related to money slang:
