Chop and change

Posted by Smokey Stover on April 21, 2005

In Reply to: Chop and change posted by James Briggs on April 21, 2005

: : Does anyone have any ideas as to the meaning and origin of the phrase "chop and change."?

: Change is understandable but Chop? I can find no modern origin, but in my 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tonge the expression was in use and chop was slang for "making dispatch, or hurrying over any business", hence our modern saying "Chop, chop" when urging someone to hurry.

OED: 2. chop and change: a change, alteration; cf. CHOP v.2 4.
[Chop v.2] 4. to chop and change: an alliterative phrase in which, as the force of the word chop has become indistinct, the meaning has passed from that of 'to barter' to that of 'to change, alter'. a. intr. To practise bartering; buy and sell; bargain with.
c1485 Digby Myst. v. 641, I..choppe and chaunge with symonye, and take large yiftes.