Mad money is the emergency cash a woman tucked away to get home safely if an evening out went badly. These days, it’s largely been replaced by cell phones. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Mad Money”
Hello, you have A Way with Words.
Hi, this is Paige from Milton, Kansas.
Hi, Paige. How are you doing?
I’m doing fine. How are you all?
All right. What can we help you with?
I have a question about a word or a little phrase my grandmother used to use.
I used it in front of my children, to my daughter, actually, and they thought it was hilarious.
She was getting ready to go out on a date, and I asked her if she had any mad money to take with her.
And, of course, she thought that was funny and had no idea what I was talking about.
It’s real common to me, though.
I’ve heard my grandmother and my mother use this term.
I was going to say.
I grew up.
Yeah.
So once you explained it to her, did she get the concept?
Yeah, yeah.
We live in rural Kansas, so the idea of having bus fare in your shoe kind of doesn’t make sense.
No buses in Kansas.
So that’s how you think about mad money.
It’s the emergency cash that a woman would put in her shoe when she goes on a date in case the fellow gets fresh and she takes an umbrage and has to leave on her own.
Correct, yes.
Because there is another mad money.
The other mad money is money that you kind of save so you can splurge later.
You might buy a nice pair of shoes or you might have just a crazy meal out that you ordinarily wouldn’t provide for yourself.
It’s not madcap spending.
Yeah, and the two mads are different.
So the mad money for a woman that she takes on a date is in case she gets mad and she has to go out on it.
And the mad money that you spend frivolously, that’s because you’re a little crazy.
I’ve heard of the former, but not the latter.
Yeah, mad as in loony.
And both of these words are about 100 years old.
Both of these meanings of this are 100 years old.
And I find that mad money is still used, although it’s interesting.
The cell phone has kind of become that default security device or device for a woman when she goes out.
Yeah, because she can call a friend, call a family member, call a cab.
Or just a credit card.
Or just a credit card, yeah.
Yeah.
Interesting.
All right.
Thanks, Paige.
Thanks for calling.
Good luck.
Bye-bye.
Thank you.
Have a nice day.
Take care now.
Bye-bye.
Bye-bye.
Mad money.
Mad money, yeah.
Eric Partridge, the famous slang lexicographer, suggests that it came about during the First World War, but I can’t really prove that, and sometimes his etymologies lack supporting information.
Yeah, I would think he would have a chaperone then, but who knows?
