Penny for your thoughts

Posted by ESC on September 17, 2003

In Reply to: Penny for your thoughts posted by Wolfy on September 17, 2003

: Does anyone know where this came from? Thanks

Here's what one reference says:

PENNY FOR YOUR THOUGHTS - "What's on your mind? (Usually said to someone who is looking pensive.) The saying is from a time when the British penny was worth a significant sum. In 1522, Sir Thomas More wrote (in 'Four Last Things'): 'It often happeth, that the very face sheweth the mind walking a pilgrimage, in such wise that.other folk sodainly say to them a peny for your thought.'" From The Dictionary of Cliches by James Rogers (Ballantine Books, New York, 1985).