The answer's a lemon

Posted by R. Berg on March 02, 2001

In Reply to: The answer's a lemon posted by James Briggs on March 02, 2001

: 'The answer's a lemon' is a saying common in British English. It is used as a response meaning 'nothing doing' when asked a question which is regarded as unreasonable or ridiculous.

: I can find no origin for this use of 'lemon', although one source does indicate that this sense of the goes back to c1910 for 'something worthless'. The earliest use, mid C19, is for 'a person of sour disposition'. This use is clear.

: Any help with the c1910 version?

Here's the entry from Eric Partridge, Dictionary of Catch Phrases: American and British, from the Sixteenth Century to the Present Day:

A derisive reply to a query-or a request-needing a 'yes' or a 'no' but hoping for 'yes'; a 'sarcastic remark-acidic in its conclusion', as Noble aptly calls it; orig. (c. 1910) US-cf the US slang "lemon," used since c. 1900, for 'a sharp verbal thrust, criticism, or retort' (Wentworth & Flexner, "A Dictionary of American Slang"); adopted in England c. 1919. Its origin lies either in a lemon's sourness or, according to legend, in an improper, indeed an exceedingly smutty, story circulating during the 1920s. In Maurice Lincoln's novel "Oh! Definitely," 1933, occurs this illuminating dialogue:

'Written by some fellow with long hair who lives in Bloomsbury, I expect,' said Horace.

'Why?' said Peter.

'Why what?'

'Well, why would he have long hair like that and live where you said?'

'The answer's a lemon,' said Horace.

In the US, the thought is expressed a little differently. In 1974, my loyal old friend W.J.B. wrote me thus:

In the US we have a phrase "I drew a lemon" or "It turned out to be a lemon," etc. If we buy a new car which has 'bugs' in it, isn't working properly, we say, "It's a lemon."

For years we have had slot machines in gambling joints. You put in a coin, pull a lever, and a row of the conventional objects appear on the face of the machine, bells, plums, etc. If you get a whole row of the same objects, all balls, say, you win, and out drops a handful of coins. . . . you may draw a whole row of yellow LEMONS, and YOU GET NOTHING. Lemons mean a bust, a disappointment. Hence, when someone says "I drew a lemon," the slot machine connotation is well understood.

But Shipley, 1977, suggests that it prob. derives from a very popular song, c. 1905, with its last lines of the chorus:
'But I picked a lemon in the garden of love,
Where they say only peaches grow.'

• The answer's a lemon James Briggs 03/03/01