{"id":8807,"date":"2019-01-29T12:45:26","date_gmt":"2019-01-29T12:45:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/xislblogs.xtreamlab.net\/slwoods\/?p=8807"},"modified":"2019-01-29T12:49:53","modified_gmt":"2019-01-29T12:49:53","slug":"a-penny-for-your-thoughts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/?p=8807","title":{"rendered":"A penny for your thoughts?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>If there&#8217;s one thing that can be said about language, it&#8217;s that it&#8217;s dynamic. Blink for a second and you might miss the coining of a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.collinsdictionary.com\/dictionary\/english\/neologism\">neologism<\/a> or an old turn of phrase becoming obsolete.<\/p>\n<p>The latter in particular can have amusing consequences, especially if re-used by someone possibly too young to appreciate the original connotations of the word or phrase.<\/p>\n<p>One such most likely occurred today in a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bristolpost.co.uk\/news\/bristol-news\/bristol-university-offering-free-bus-2479093\">Bristol Post piece<\/a> about free travel in the Bristol area on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.firstgroup.com\/bristol-bath-and-west\/routes-and-maps\/universities\/university-bristol-bristol-unibus\">Unibus<\/a> services.<\/p>\n<p>The item&#8217;s second paragraph reads as follows:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Passengers will able to hop on the Unibus U2 service, from Monday February 18 until Friday, February 22 without spending a penny.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>To someone of my age (<em>rapidly approaching where I qualify for a pass for free bus travel. Ed.<\/em>), the phrase has connotations other than obtaining buckshee travel.<\/p>\n<p>As <a href=\"https:\/\/www.collinsdictionary.com\/dictionary\/english\/to-spend-a-penny\">Collins Dictionary<\/a> helpfully points out:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\nIf someone says that they are going to spend a penny, they mean that they are going to go to the toilet. [British, old-fashioned, politeness]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/xislblogs.xtreamlab.net\/slwoods\/wp-content\/uploads\/\/sites\/23\/2019\/01\/penny_slot_toilet.jpg\" alt=\"old coin-operated public toilet lock\" width=\"120\" height=\"160\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-8829\" \/>The origins of the phrase stretch back to the Victorian era and refer to the use of coin-operated locks on public toilets in the UK. Such locks were first used in a public toilet outside London&#8217;s Royal Exchange in the 1850s.<\/p>\n<p>The phrase &#8220;<em>to spend a penny<\/em>&#8221; has now largely died out and been forgotten, except by those with greying hair, due to changes to public toilets themselves (<em>many of which have been <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bristolpost.co.uk\/news\/bristol-news\/council-set-close-bristols-street-830776\">closed by austerity-hit local authorities<\/a>. Ed.<\/em>) and changes in the charges to use a toilet. Last time I looked while on my travels, the toilets at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nationalrail.co.uk\/stations\/MCV\/details.html\">Manchester Victoria railway station<\/a> cost an exorbitant 20p, i.e. 4 shillings or 48 times the original cost of one penny. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If there&#8217;s one thing that can be said about language, it&#8217;s that it&#8217;s dynamic. Blink for a second and you might miss the coining of a neologism or an old turn of phrase becoming obsolete. The latter in particular can have amusing consequences, especially if re-used by someone possibly too young to appreciate the original [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,3,32],"tags":[40,16,22,33],"class_list":["post-8807","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bristol","category-translation-and-language-related-matters","category-media","tag-bristol","tag-english-usage","tag-language","tag-media-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8807","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8807"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8807\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8835,"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8807\/revisions\/8835"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8807"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8807"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8807"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}