When investing or trading stocks, the last thing you want is to take a bath — or, for that matter, a haircut. The first of these refers to getting cleaned out of money. The second is an allusion to being left with as little as two bits, or 25 cents. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Financial Slang”
Hello, you have A Way with Words.
Hi, this is Vicki from Eureka, California.
Hello, Vicki, welcome.
Hiya, Vicki, welcome to the show.
Well, thank you so much.
What’s cooking in Eureka?
Well, up here in the land of the tall trees and the six rivers and the bay and the coastline, as it happens, I have a rental home here that I had rented to members of the family who are moving on. And so here in this market, I’m preparing myself to sell a home. And, of course, with everything going on now, I’ve been talking to a lot of people about it and heard myself use a couple of phrases that came right out of my mouth, and I couldn’t really identify with having heard them before or really knowing the origin of them.
Oh, good. Let’s hear them.
Okay. Well, one of them was, in talking to friends, I said, I hope I’m not going to have to take a bath on selling this house.
Oh, nice.
And the other one was, I hope I’m not going to have to take, or take, yes, I guess, get a haircut.
Very good. I love those.
Very personal.
Yeah.
I asked my realtor, who’s also very interested in language and words, what he thought, and he talked about a bloodbath.
Ooh.
And you were…
That sounds worse.
Both of those seemed a little violent to me because in taking a haircut rather than getting a haircut, it seems like it’s something being done to you. And when he talked about a bloodbath, I thought, well, maybe I have the wrong realtor here.
Yeah, what kind of scissors is he using?
Where does that come from?
He needs a clipper guard.
And so, in other words, you’re talking about losing your shirt maybe.
Oh, another one.
Yeah, there’s another one.
And maybe if you get ripped off, you’re being taken to the cleaners.
True. And when you take that bath, you don’t want to be underwater either.
Yeah, right. And you definitely don’t want to be upside down on the house.
That’s right. He did mention that. There are a lot of phrases about water having to do with financial loss. And I love that all of these are variants on euphemizing a financial loss because it’s a personal thing. It’s almost like talking about romance or love when you talk about money.
Yeah, it is.
Even with your family or somebody who is in the deal with you, you might find a way to disguise your emotions when it comes to your investments not working out.
That’s interesting.
It’s like death, like kicking the bucket or something.
Yeah, exactly.
Here we go again.
Let’s address your terms because they both have really interesting but easily explained points of view. For example, if you take a bath, you are literally being cleaned out. So to be cleaned out is to have an empty wallet or an empty bank vault. There’s nothing in there. It’s washed clean of all money. So you have taken a bath. That’s the actual real origin of that.
Taking a haircut is a little more difficult. But if I go, what do you do?
Right.
Two bits.
Two bits is 25 cents, right? So all you’ve got left is 25 cents. And the whole phrase is shave and a haircut. Two bits. So you are getting a 25 cent haircut. That’s what you’re doing. That’s all you’ve got left. You’ve got enough left for a 25-cent haircut.
Oh, goodness.
But you’re clean.
Yeah, that’s why you’re taking a haircut. I mean, and it’s not just a little off the top either. I mean, the whole mullet is going.
Oh, my goodness.
The ponytail is being cut off, right?
Oh, no.
We’re using the 1-8-inch razor on this guy.
Oh, goodness.
And then losing your shirt is pretty obvious. That’s all you’ve got left is your clothes. And then you don’t have your clothes left either because you sold your clothes to pay your debts. And then being taken to the cleaners. It’s the same story as being cleaned out.
Well, I enjoy your program very much.
Thank you so much.
I hope that the home sale works out for you. You gave a very nice advertisement for a beautiful part of the country, and maybe you’ll get a caller from somewhere else who will look you up.
Well, come on up. I have a lovely home for sale, and maybe I can take a bath in champagne or something like that.
Even better.
That’s great.
Vicki, thanks for calling.
Thank you so much.
Thank you, Vicki.
Thank you.
Good luck.
Bye-bye.
And instead of a haircut, she could get a really nice perm.
877-929-9673 or email words@waywordradio.org.
