These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously. Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. In all the above-cited examples, the idiom is either used to get to know what the other person is thinking or for a piece of their advice. John noticed his friend’s pensive mood, so he asked: “A penny for your thoughts, Sherry.” A penny for your thoughts?”.Īfter presenting the world’s economic rate, the boss asked, ‘A penny for our thoughts’.Ī penny for your thoughts? On the project I represented. It’s a way of asking gently when you seem lost. The meaning of a penny for your thoughts isn’t comparing your thoughts or insights worth with a penny. How to use ‘a penny for your thoughts’ in a sentence? The use of the phrase says that money was offered to a wise man who was silent to share his knowledge or insight.Īnd the idiom with the meaning that we know today became popular after a book written by John Heywood. If you look at the usage of the phrase in Sir Thomas More’s book “four last things ” published posthumously. The above-quoted phrase says that when people want a person who is being noticed as disconnected to step back into the conversation, they would say ‘a penny for your thoughts’. “In such wise yt not wtoute som note & reproch of suche vagaraunte mind, other folk sodainly say to them: a peny for your thought.” Similarly, the etymology of “A penny for your thoughts” says it was first used by Sir Thomas More in A Treatyce upon the last thynges, in 1535. Tracing the exact origin of most idioms isn’t that simple. Where did the expression ‘a penny for your thoughts’ come from? No interference, just a way of asking politely. Hey David, “You have been quiet for a while, a penny for your thoughts.” You would go to him, try and figure out his mood and then speak, right? But what to say? If you notice your friend, David, sitting quietly for some time, what would you do? Here, the person is trying to ask Harry what thing is stressing him up without making him feel intruded. “Harry, you look pretty tense today, a penny for your thoughts”. What’s the meaning of ‘A Penny For Your Thoughts’?īy definition, a penny for your thoughts is a metaphorical figure of speech used in a sentence to hear another person’s thoughts gently, who has been sitting quietly for a long time. Read the further blog to know more about this idiom. So, how would you get in the way of someone’s daydreaming without giving the feel of intrusion? By saying “a penny for your thoughts”. The speaker doesn’t ask for banging your fist against the sack instead it’s an idiom to say go to sleep. Here it doesn’t talk about breaking the leg of a person instead it’s an idiom used to wish good luck. If you are familiar with idioms, try and get the literal meaning of any one of them, it will always point in some other direction. An idiom that illustrates emotions rather than the literal meaning of the phrase.
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