...and you takes your chances?

Posted by ESC on November 24, 2004

In Reply to: ...and you takes your chances? posted by Brian from Shawnee on November 24, 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.

: I've always said "...and you takes your chances". A Google search shows mine's the rarer version, with 860 for "chances" and 3460 for "choices".

"Chances" is more familiar to me too...like a game of chance at a carnival.