Kick (A). Sixpence. “Two-and-a-kick” = two shillings and sixpence. (Anglo-Saxon, cicel, a bit. In
Jamaica a “bit” = sixpence, and generally it means the smallest silver coin in circulation; thus, in America,
a “bit” is fourpence. We speak of a “threepenny bit.”)
“It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks” (Acts ix. 5; and xxvi. 14.) The proverb occurs in Pindar
(2 Pythian Victories, v. 173), in Æschylos; (Agamemnon, 1,624), in Euripde (Bacchæ, 791), in Terence
(Phormio, i. ii. 27), in Ovid (Tristia, book ii. 15), etc.; but whether the reference is to an ox kicking when
goaded, or a horse when pricked with the rowels of a spur, is not certain. The plural kentra seems to refer
to more than one, and pros kentra cannot refer to a repetition of goad thrusts. Altogether, the rowels of a
spur suit the phrase better than the single point of an ox-goad.

A source of merriment in Sunday School