[stylist] Fwd: A Phrase A Week - Cash on the nail

Thu Sep 16 22:15:51 UTC 2010

I've never seen this phrase.  I am quite familiar with "cash on the 
barrelhead" meaning complete payment made at time of purchase.
jc

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>From: A Phrase A Week <apaw at phrasefinder.co.uk>
>To: "James H. \"Jim\" Canaday M.A. N6YR" <n6yr at sunflower.com>
>Subject: A Phrase A Week - Cash on the nail
>Sender: A Phrase A Week <apaw at phrasefinder.co.uk>
>Date: Thu, 16 Sep 2010 16:54:02 GMT
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>Cash on the nail
>
>
>
>Meaning
>
>Payment made immediately.
>
>
>Origin
>
>
>
>'Cash on the nail' (or 'pay on the nail') is an extension of the 
>earlier phrase - 'on the nail', meaning immediate payment; without 
>delay. This expression is first recorded in English in Thomas 
>Nashe's Haue with you to Saffron-Walden, 1596:
>
>"Tell me, haue you a minde to anie thing in the Doctors Booke! 
>speake the word, and I will help you to it vpon the naile."
>
>Philip Massinger's comic play The City-Madame, 1632, in which a 
>character welcomes the arrival of a ship that has given his master 
>considerable profit, makes the association with timeliness clear:
>
>And it comes timely; For, besides a payment on the nail for a manor 
>late purchased by my master, his young daughters are ripe for marriage.
>
>The first example that I can find of the longer 'cash on the nail' 
>version is in an anonymous open letter from to the Mayor of Exeter, 
>printed in a sixpenny broadsheet in 1753:
>
>The Commanders and Officers of those vessels knew very well that 
>Wool and Worsted were Commodities of a real and intrinsic Value: 
>Articles that would sell at any Time or Place for ready Cash on the Nail.
>
>cash on the nail
>I've managed to get this far without mentioning the story that 'cash 
>on the nail' relates to the bronze pillars called nails. These are 
>to be seen outside the Corn Exchange in Bristol and the Stock 
>Exchanges in Limerick and Liverpool. This derivation is printed in 
>virtually every etymological reference book. Whisper it not in 
>Bristol, Limerick or Liverpool, but this story has to be treated 
>with some caution.
>
>It is said that the oldest of the four pillars in Bristol is 
>mid-16th century and so would just pre-date the earliest printed 
>reference to 'on the nail'. It is also true that business deals were 
>sealed on these pillars. The late dates of the appearance of either 
>or the terms cash on the nail and pay on the nail, make the 
>attribution doubtful. None of the early printed references makes any 
>reference to any of the cities with nails. The first time the 
>suggested link between the bronze nails and the phrase was made was 
>in 1870, by Dr Cobham Brewer in the first edition of the Dictionary 
>of Phrase and Fable. That suggestion was made over a century after 
>the phrase was already in common use. There's not quite enough 
>evidence to say that Brewer made the story up, but it does seem to 
>be a strong possibility.
>
>It is more likely that the nails were named to match the expression 
>rather than the other way around and that the origin of the 
>expression lies in France rather than on the west coast of either 
>England or Ireland.
>
>Versions of the expression were used in several European languages:
>
>14th century Anglo-Norman, as payer sur le ungle - to pay immediately.
>17th century French, as sur l'ongle - exactly.
>Dutch, as op den nagel - on the nail
>German, as auf den Nagel - entirely, to the last detail.
>
>The Anglo-Norman 'payer sur le ungle' means just the same as the 
>English 'pay on the nail'. 'Ungle' derives from the Latin 'ungula', 
>which means claw or nail. The sense of the earliest version of the 
>phrase is clearly 'payment with the hand' - nothing to do with 
>bronze obelisks.
>
>By around 1900 the US also began to use 'cash on the barrel' and 
>'cash on the barrelhead', with the same meaning as 'cash on the 
>nail'. Those phrases have a much stronger claim to have a literal 
>derivation, as barrels were used as impromptu counters in US stores 
>and yard sales.
>
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