What is the origin of the saying "penny for your thoughts"? Does anyone know of a good site to look up the origins of sayings?
by 
humphrey
ANSWERS: 3
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Here you go, scroll down to the bottom and there's a list of sites for explaining where sayings come from: http://home.earthlink.net/~ruthpett/safari/megalist.htm If it's a penny for your thoughts why do you put your two cents in? :o)
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The phrase first appeared in Heywood's proverbs in 1546. It simply meant 'Tell me what you are thinking about.' I don't know of any sites but my favorite book of the origins of sayings is, Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable.
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PENNY FOR YOUR THOUGHTS - "What's on your mind? (Usually said to someone who is looking pensive.) The saying is from a time when the British penny was worth a significant sum. In 1522, Sir Thomas More wrote (in 'Four Last Things'): 'It often happeth, that the very face sheweth the mind walking a pilgrimage, in such wise that.other folk sodainly say to them a peny for your thought.'" From "The Dictionary of Cliches" by James Rogers (Ballantine Books, New York, 1985). http://www.phrases.org.uk/bulletin_board/24/messages/454.html You've been awfully quiet--a penny for your thoughts. This expression dates from the 1500s and was in John Heywood's 1546 collection of proverbs. http://www.answers.com/Penny%20for%20your%20thoughts (idiomatic) A phrase used to inquire into the thoughts and feelings of another - usually used when the person appears pensive or conflicted. http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/penny_for_your_thoughts You can try these three sites for origins of sayings: http://www.phrases.org.uk/ http://www.answers.com/ http://en.wiktionary.org/
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