NOT!!!! Dammit :)

Posted by The Fallen on February 01, 2002

In Reply to: Re: What one does need, is dear a penny posted by The Fallen on February 01, 2002

: : : : Hi everybody!
: : : : Pleased to meet you. I'm a Spanish free-lance translator and I'm just happy that I've found you ;-)
: : : : I hope you can help me with this sentence:
: : : : "Nothing is cheap which is superfluous, for what one does need, is dear at a penny".
: : : : I think I've understood its meaning (perhaps: superfluous things are always expensive; necessary things are not). But I wonder if it is a phrase used in specific situations and even if I have undestood it correctly.
: : : : Thanks in advance.
: : : : MARTA

: : : Dear Marta,

: : : I have a different understanding of the phrase. I think it means that nothing that isn't a necessity is can be considered cheap because what one absolutely needs is expensive.

: : : Imagine an unemployed person offered an ridiculously cheap price for a trip to Spain. Unfortunately because this person can barely pay for the necessities, so it doesn't matter how inexpensive the trip is, it can't be considered cheap.

: : : 'Dear' is used here in the sense of expensive.

: : : I haven't heard the phrase used before. Where did you find it?

: : I haven't heard this phrase either. The first part is easy to understand. If you buy something useless at a reduced price,(like a ship in the desert), it's not really a savings. You've wasted your money.

: : I'm having trouble with the second part. If you really need something (like a heart transplant) it is cheap at any price. But "what one does need, is dear at a penny" doesn't say that to me. One of the meanings of "dear" is "expensive." ("Dictionary of Word Origins: the Histories of More Than 8,000 English-Language Words" by John Ayto; Arcade Publishing, New York, 1990). Something you really, really need wouldn't be expensive at a penny.

: : R. Berg? Can you clear this up. I've muddied it enough.

: It's easy if you make the presumption that others have valued the needful thing at one penny when to you it's vital - value is relative and personal. I'm reminded of the old adage "for want of a nail, the horseshoe was lost..." and so on, but perhaps a better example would be finding a small but very unusual car part in a junkyard that is totally valueless to everyone else, and so is priced incredibly cheaply - but it's exactly what you need to complete the restoration of your 1938 Studebaker after years of looking. A bit of a stretch but you get the general drift, I'm sure.

...and I heave a huge sigh after all the hoops I have just jumped through...