"biting money"

[Joel S. Berson]

It would certainly help if some context were
provided, including a reply to Alice Faber's
question whether the reference is to coin or paper money (or something else).

If coin:

Douglas has responded as though "biting money" is
a noun phrase, meaning some kind of money.  I had
thought of it as a verbal phrase, a la Alice,
someone biting money to see if it is genuine.

1)  Noun phrase

Douglas's 1937 and 1939 examples seem to me to be
a comparison of "hard" currency, precious metal
coin, as having real value as contrasted with
paper currency, which is without inherent value
and subject to inflation.  That is, "biting
money" = "coin of precious metal".  His 1974
example seems a straightforward example this.

2)  Verbal phrase, literal

Examples:

1888:  "Until I was thoroughly known, merchants
were in the habit of ringing or biting my money
to assure themselves that it was genuine."  The
Atchison Daily Globe, (Atchison, KS) Tuesday,
March 06, 1888; Issue 3,196; col F.  [19th Century U.S. Newspapers]

1892:  "Never give a porter a bad quarter of soft
metal ­ the porters have an unpleasant way of
biting the money received."  Judge's library, a
monthly magazine of fun, vols. 34-45, p. 51.  [GBooks]

1928: "The man who spends his time biting his
money to see whether or not it is genuine
doesn't, usually, have much of it to bite;
...".  The Desert Moon mystery, Kay Cleaver Strahan, p. 234.  [GBooks snippet]

(I am surprised not to find anything earlier, but
probably I am not searching well.)

Thus for the verbal phrase, literal, "biting
money" is the simple, well-known "testing the quality of coin".

3)  Verbal phrase, figurative

Google Everything has about 2250 hits for the
phrase "biting the money".  A few suggest a
meaning of "violently or improperly taking money from someone".  Examples:

"He was biting the money out my hand lol he knows the value of money!"

"and, therefore, when we provide the committee
with the teeth with which to bite those who are biting the money of the
public instead of sending money,"

"when it starts biting the money off of you"
-----

Of course, none of this directly addresses the
question of whether the expression is regional to the Upper Peninsula.

Joel






At 12/3/2011 02:01 AM, Douglas G. Wilson wrote:
>On 12/1/2011 9:35 AM, Michael Sheehan wrote:
>>---------------------- Information from the
>>mail header -----------------------
>>Sender:       American Dialect Society<ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>Poster:       Michael Sheehan<wordmall at AOL.COM>
>>Subject:      "biting money"
>>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>>Having exhausted the meager resources available to me, I turn to this
>>august body. I am told that "biting money" is an Upper Peninsula term,
>>and that it was often used by U.P. author Cully Gage. Can anyone
>>define the term?
>--
>
>Sure, I can, tentatively; but I can't guarantee that my definition is
>100% accurate or verifiable.
>
>I suppose that "biting money" means (1) coins (originally those which
>were of gold or silver with 'intrinsic value') as opposed to paper
>money, (2) actual cash in hand (as opposed to credit, or to other forms
>of property).
>
>I suppose it means originally "money which one can bite" (supposedly in
>the old days one might bite a coin to test it, maybe to distinguish
>silver from lead or whatever).
>
>In some cases "biting money" seems to be somewhat redundant, = simply
>"money", as one might say "cash money", "cold cash", etc.
>
>Examples:
>
>1937: <<Many millions of dollars of paper money had been issued, backed
>by hope. Its value was falling from a rate in February, 1780, of 40
>continental paper dollars to one good, hard dollar of biting money
>toward the depths that it struck In 1781.>> [dateline Washington DC]
>
>1939 : <<When they sell their franchise rights, "natives" want the
>payoff in what they call biting money rather than paper promises.>>
>[apparently refers to silver dollars in New Mexico]
>
>1974: <<Alongside the fabric gold pokes on display are early pocket gold
>scales the wary carried to test "biting" money on the spot.>> [pioneer
>gold exhibition, San Francisco]
>
>I can't find any published explicit definition on brief search.
>
>-- Doug Wilson
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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