Expression "hand over fist" -- A History Channel folk etymology?

[Mark Mandel]

Hunh. FWIW, I have always interpreted the idiom as referring to grabbing
money with both hands: Each hand alternately closes around a fistful of cash
and drops it into (a bag, your lap). While one hand is closing, the other
one is open just above it after dropping off its own load, ready for the
next.

Mark Mandel


On Tue, Feb 17, 2009 at 9:08 PM, Cohen, Gerald Leonard <gcohen at mst.edu>wrote:

> This is now my fourth attempt to send this message ------
>
>    A colleague told me about hearing the origin of the expression "(making
> money) hand over fist" on the History Channel, and I asked him if he could
> e-mail me the information as best he remembered it.  Below my signoff is
> what he sent (Many thanks).
>
>     First, though, I checked OED online and tried to include its "hand over
> fist" attestations in this ads-l message, but the ads-l website is
> configured to reject such inclusions. So I'll just retype the earliest two
> entries (which aren't all that early and don't refer to the making of
> money):
>
> 1825: W.N. GLASCOCK, _Naval Sketch-Bk. (1826) I.26 The French..weathered
> our wake, coming up with us, 'hand over fist', in three divisions.
> 1833 S. SMITH _Life Major J. Downing_ (1834) 116 They..clawed the money off
> of his table, hand over fist.
>
>    Might the original context have been a furious climbing motion (perhaps
> in an attack), with one hand grasping onto the rung of a ladder while the
> other hand reaches up to the next rung?  Then by extension, the clawing of
> money off the gambling table (one hand over the other, raking it all in) and
> hence: "making money hand over fist"?
>
> Gerald Cohen
>
> [from my colleague about History Channel program]:
>
> <snip>
>
> "The matter as I understand it...the phrase refers to the process by which
> money is made, in this sense it is equivalent to the more modern expression
> of 'printing money', both simply references to the manufacturing process.
>  At one stage in the history of money it was made by first creating a flat
> sheet of a precious metal at a given thickness.  Then, much like using a
> cookie punch on cookie dough, one uses a cylindrical tool to stamp out round
> discs, the excess metal left over from the punches can then be re-melted in
> the next batch, so all the metal is preserved.  After the metal is cut into
> a disc a mallet and printing device are then used to stamp both sides of the
> coin.  The stamp is held in a fist like grip, the mallet is held in the hand
> and thus when you put your hand over your fist you are literally making
> money in this setting."
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org