The things you learn on the OED [was: NPR]

[Garson O'Toole]

Joel S. Berson wrote
> Apparently known from 1945, before post-war inflation.  The authority
> (pace Wilson) says:
>
> With allusion to the (former) price of admission to public toilets.
> 1945 H. LEWIS Strange Story iv. 27 'Us girls,' she said, 'are going
> to spend a penny!' [And so on.]

An instance of the expression crossed the pond quickly. Journalist A.
J. Liebling used it in a New Yorker short story also in 1945. It was
collected in The Best American Short Stories 1946, ed. Martha Foley.

1945 September 29, The New Yorker, "Run, Run, Run, Run" by A. J.
Liebling, Page 24, Column 2, F-R Pub. Corp.

"Brownie got a brushoff from a society dame at a bottle club in
London," Barry said. "She said she was going to spend a penny and she
never came back. He's been a militant proletarian ever since."

Garson


> At 9/1/2010 10:22 AM, Eric Nielsen wrote:
>>Boy, that phrase must have some history. I'm sure a coin-op loo is well over
>>thrupence by now.
>>
>>Eric
>>
>>On Wed, Sep 1, 2010 at 10:13 AM, Bill Palmer <w_a_palmer at bellsouth.net>wrote:
>>
>> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> > -----------------------
>> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> > Poster:       Bill Palmer <w_a_palmer at BELLSOUTH.NET>
>> > Subject:      The things you learn on NPR
>> >
>> >
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> >
>> > Apparently to "spend a penny" is to "use the toilet" in England, or at =
>> > least in and around Norfolk.
>> >
>> > To appropriate a phrase from Wilson, "Youneverknow"
>
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