THE CAT'S PAJAMAS LVI

Tad Tuleja

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

CLIP JOINT

In a clip joint, the customer loses his money because he is "clipped" or cheated by the management. Today the phrase is loosely applied to any establishment in which prices are high, service is poor, or hidden charges are tacked on to the final bill.

In French painter Georges de la Tour's 1621 work The Fortuneteller, we see the original meaning of the term. It depicts an old Gypsy woman who is reading the palm of a pompous young aristocrat. While one of her daughters distracts him with conversation, a second one uses tiny metal snips to remove his dangling watch from its chain.

In the pre-wristwatch era, such "clipping" operations were common practice among thieves, and in the 17th century, they were most common in urban coffee houses, where tricksters like de la Tour's gypsies plied their trade: These establishments were the original clip joints.