THE CAT'S PAJAMAS XXXI

Tad Tuleja

 

A collection of the (mostly) true origins of familiar phrases

 

HAND OVER FIST

 

To make money hand over fist is to accumulate it at such a rapid rate that it can barely be counted. There is a faint whiff of impropriety about the phrase, as if a person making money that fast must be doing something illegal - which was true. The expression was popular in the 1920's, when vast fortunes were made on the bull market in questionable trading. But the phrase predates that era by a hundred years. It arose among riverboat gamblers before the Civil War, when the placement of a palm over a closed fist was one of many signals between gaming partners by which they defrauded other, unsuspecting players . A similar expression from that period was yanking one's chain - referring to watch chains.