This May 30, 2012 file photo shows a chicken looking for chickenfeed.
(AP Photo/John Bazemore)
Almost every language in the
world has a saying that a person can never be too rich.
Americans, like people in other
countries, always want more money. One way they express this is by protesting
that their jobs do not pay enough. A common expression is, "I am working
for chickenfeed." It means "working for very little money." The
expression probably began because seeds fed to chickens made people think of
small change. "Small change" means metal coins of not much value,
like nickels which are worth five cents.
An early use of the word
chickenfeed appeared in an American publication in 1930. It told about a rich
man and his son.
Word expert Mitford Mathews says it read: "I'll bet neither the kid nor
his father ever saw a nickel or a dime. They would not have been interested in
such chickenfeed."
Chickenfeed also has another
interesting meaning known to history experts and World War II spies and
soldiers. Spy expert Henry S. A. Becket writes that some German spies working
in London
during the war also worked for the British. The British government had to make
the Germans believe their spies were working. So, British officials gave them
mostly false information. It was called "chickenfeed."
The same person who protests that
he is "working for chickenfeed" may also say, "I am working for
peanuts." She means she is working for a small amount of money. It is a
very different meaning from the main one in the dictionary. That meaning is
"small nuts that grow on a plant."
No one knows for sure how a word
for something to eat also came to mean something very small. But, a peanut is a
very small food.
The expression is an old one.
Word expert Mitford Mathews says that as early as 1854, an American publication
used the words "peanut agitators." That meant "political
troublemakers who did not have a lot of support."
Another reason for the saying
about "working for peanuts" may be linked to elephants. Think of how
elephants are paid for their work in the circus -- they receive food, not
money. One of the foods they like best is peanuts.
When you add the word
"gallery" to the word "peanut" you have the name of an area
in an American theater. A gallery is a high seating area or balcony above the
main floor.
The peanut gallery got its name
because it is the part of the theater most distant from where the show takes
place. So, peanut gallery tickets usually cost less than other tickets. People
pay a small amount of money for them.
This Special English program Words
and Their Stories was written by Jeri Watson.
This is Susan Clark.
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