Phrase pay on the nail

Posted by Bruce Kahl on September 24, 2000

In Reply to: Phrase pay on the nail posted by Nick Mcall on September 24, 2000

: Can anyone tell me the meaning and/or origin of the phrase " to pay on the nail ".

Down on the nail; Pay down on the nail. In ready money. The Latin ungulus (from unguis) means a shot or reckoning, hence ungulum dare, to pay one's reckoning.

In the centre of The Limerick Stock Exchange is a pillar with a circular plate of copper about three feet in diameter, called The Nail, on which the earnest of all stock-exchange bargains has to be paid.
A similar custom prevailed at Bristol, where were four pillars, called nails, in front of the Exchange for a similar purpose. In Liverpool Exchange there is a plate of copper called The Nail, on which bargains are settled.

• Phrase pay on the nail James Briggs 09/25/00