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it seems to be an excerpt from some sort of classwork/assignment; the site was garbaged up with the characters you get with some foreign language sites. I won't even attempt to give the link here, as it goes rocketing off automagically to some secondary site and I only was able to copy what I did by interrupting the original transfer just before the end. you can find it your own se'f by googling:
"black penny" origin
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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In “common” Québec French we call the one-cent coin "une cenne noir" - a black penny. Pennies used to become black with age. When a single penny used to be worthwhile currency, a poor person would have tried to save his pennies - blackening with age - to be able to buy something.
Our coins are identified by the quantity of pennies. For example, we don't say a quarter or a dime, we say "do you have a twenty five pennies" or "a ten pennies".
We use an expression "pay to the last black penny" (payer jusqu'à la dernière cenne noir) when we want to convey that we paid something in full (what we owed is completely paid back) Oh, it is important to add that this is usually said when there is some argument as to whether the debt was paid...like when somebody says "Eugene says you never gave him his ten bucks back."
We also say "it cost me to my last black penny," (ça m’a coûté jusqu’à ma dernière cenne noir) to mean it took all the money we had to buy something - we don't even have a meager penny left.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Aha, bel--my theory was right! (At least where you live!)
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Carpal Tunnel
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Here, US'ns would call that a red cent.
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Carpal Tunnel
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OP
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Fascinating - thanks, Bel. I'll draw Michael's attention to your information. Any other takers?
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Carpal Tunnel
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US'ns would call that a red cent.
Usually found in the negative as in, "It didn't cost me one red cent."
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Joined: Jul 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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>Could it be so simple as the act of paying out one's last penny, the one found in the ashes in the fireplace?
Well, I'll be darned, my guess wasn't that far off!
TEd
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Carpal Tunnel
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A great aunt, she was Irish-born, used the expression. I was quite young but I somehow knew she meant her last penny or full price, or that the price required digging deep into the finances, depending on context.
My Grandfather always called pennies "coppers" and when I visited Ireland...sure enough...the pennies (if not all copper) sure looked like copper coins!
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addict
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addict
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with reference to the phrase "spending a penny" meaning using the bathroom; from the old public toilets requiring a penny to open the door lock.
A Downing Street spokesman has confirmed that in order to meet the
conditions for joining the Euro, the phrase 'spending a penny' is
not to be used after the 31st of December 2001.
From this date the correct terminology will be 'euronating'.
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