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You pays your money ...

Posted by ESC on November 23, 2004

In Reply to: "You pays your money and you takes your choice." posted by ESC on November 23, 2004

: : I used this phrase today, and someone asked me where it came from. Help!

: Googling found this: Punch, a English humorous weekly periodical, 1841-1992. Quotations:
: You pays your money and you takes your choice. (vol.10, p.17, 1846)

: Another source is in agreement with the above -- it is Cockney speech recorded in Punch in 1846. From Dictionary of Catch Phrases: American and British, from the Sixteenth Century to the Present Day by Eric Partridge, updated and edited by Paul Beal, Scarborough House, Lanham, Md., 1992)

And another reference, just for good measure:

YOU PAYS YOUR MONEY AND YOU TAKES YOUR CHOICE -- Punch, Vol. X, No. 16, 1846. From "Fundamentals of Risk and Insurance," eighth edition, by Emmett J. Vaughan and Therese M. Vaughan, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York, 1999.

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