Re: Paying through the nose

Posted by Masakim on November 23, 2001

In Reply to: Re: Paying through the nose posted by capable wingnut on November 23, 2001

: : : Does anybody know the origins of the phrase
: : : "to pay through the nose"?

: : I sugest that you use this link.

: hmmm link did not apear.

: http://www.phrases.org.uk/bulletin_board/1/messages/2245.html

Here is another theory:

Pay Through the Nose. Be charged an exorbitant price. Why nose? One superstition is that this kind of paying is as irksome as a nosebleed. Another tale has it that the Danes levied a tax on the Irish in the 9th century, and that anyone who failed to pay it was punished by having his nose slit. In any event, we find Andrew Marvell wrting in 1672 (in _The Rehearsal Tranposed_(: "Made them pay it most unconsciously and through the Nose."
From _The Dictionary of Cliche_ by James Rogers