In another episode, we discussed pigeon pair, or “a daughter and son,” an allusion to the old belief that pigeons and doves always have two chicks, one of each sex. A millionaire’s family or a million-dollar family is “a family with one daughter and one son,” supposedly an ideal combination of offspring. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “A Millionaire’s Family”
Grant, you remember our conversation about pigeon pairs.
Those aren’t birds.
They’re people.
Right.
That’s when a family has both a boy and a girl, and no more, no less.
Right.
That conversation prompted a response from Jessie Ravage, who lives in Cooperstown, New York.
And she writes, my mother was told when my brother was born that now she had a millionaire’s family.
She figured it was because there would be no handing down of clothes from Jesse to her brother.
You know, it was really expensive to have two kids like that.
But it sounds like it’s more like an ideal.
I found lots of instances of the term millionaire’s family or million-dollar family, which is also one boy and one girl.
Or some people refer to $2 million families, which are two boys and two girls.
Oh.
And so the idea is just that, just like the pigeon pair is sometimes called the royal pair or the king’s pair, it’s just the idea that this is just what you would really want if you are a great family.
Just one to marry off and one to take over.
Right.
You can pick which one is which.
Yeah, supposedly the ideal, but of course, families come in all different shapes and sizes.
Yes, they do.
And tell us about your family and the language you use.
You can tell us on Twitter @wayword.
