my two cents

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One cent US penny (1909)

" My two cents " (" my 2 ¢ ", long " put my 2 cents in ") is a full North American idiom and originally comes from the English idiom "my two-cents" or long "to put in my two cents worth" German "worth my two cents". It is used as a closing formula and means something like "(So far) my insignificant opinion." Unlike the abbreviation IMHO , which is used in the middle of the text, the abbreviation JM2C is often found at the end of contributions in (increasingly also German) Internet forums and on Usenet .

origin

There are several partly contradicting theories about the origin of this idiom. What is certain is that it has been around much longer than the Internet .

theory

The phrase is believed to be taken from the Bible. Both the Gospels of Luke and Mark say that a poor widow threw "two mites" (Luther) or "two small coins" into the offering box ( Mk 12.42  EU ) ( Lk 21.2  EU ) . In the King James Bible , the sentence reads: “And hee saw also a certaine poor widow, casting in thither two mites.” Over time, the “mites” (“ Heller ”) became “cents”. This is commented on with: “This poor widow hath cast more in, than all they which have cast into the treasury: For all they did cast in of their abundance; but she of her want did cast in all that she had, even all her living. ”In self-irony, the phrase consists of the figurative meaning“ I have given everything I have, even if it is only two cents ”or“ now I gave my last (my last penny) ”.

Similar idioms are: "to add your mustard" or "to contribute your little bit". A mite is figuratively a small amount, see Scherf .

Earliest example

The earliest occurrence of the phrase with a corresponding meaning was previously found in an article by Allene Sumner My "Two cents' worth" in the Olean Evening Times in March 1926.

Further occurrence

  • In the US television series The Simpsons , "My 2 Cents" is the column of the news anchor Kent Brockman.
  • Occasionally only my 4 pfennigs are written in German. On the one hand this is an allusion to the earlier US dollar : D-Mark - exchange rate of approx. 1: 2, on the other hand it can be understood as a rejection of Anglicism . Meanwhile, the has cents but variant established, not least because of the Euros and Euro cents . Occasionally only my 0.02 EUR is used .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Gail Brenner: Webster's New World American Idioms Handbook . Wiley, Indianapolis 2003, ISBN 0-7645-2477-1 .
  2. ↑ a b just my two cents. Langenscheidt, accessed April 9, 2017 .
  3. ^ A b Robert Barker (ed.): The Holy Bible, Conteyning the Old Testament, and the New . London 1611, S. Luke. Cape. 21: The poore widow .
  4. ↑ Allene Sumner: My "Two cents' worth" . In: Olean Evening Times . Olean, March 1926.
  5. ↑ Chris Turner: Planet Simpson . Ebury, London 2004, ISBN 0-09-190336-X .