Back Penny
Where does the saying “a bad penny always comes back to you” come from?
I have heard this saying many time be for, were it come from and what it means.
The proverb, also used allusively in simile and metaphor (see quot. 1766), refers to the predictable, and usually unwelcome, return of a disreputable or prodigal person after some absence.
Like a bad penny it returnd, to me again.
[1766 A. Adams in L. H. Butterfield et al. Adams Family Correspondence (1963) I. 55]
Bring back Darsie? little doubt of that—the bad shilling is sure enough to come back again.
[1824 Scott Redgauntlet II. ii.]
Just like as not he’ll be coming back one of these days, when he’s least wanted. A bad penny is sure to return.
[1884 R. H. Thorpe Fenton Family iii.]
Who’s dead, when and what did he die of? Turn up like a bad penny.
[1922 Joyce Ulysses 149]
‘I miss Bart.’ ‘Oh, a bad penny always turns up again.’
[1941 A. Updegraff Hills look Down vi.]
‘Stop worrying. The bad pennies always turn up.’ ‘Oh, Adrian, I don’t think she’s a bad penny, not really.’
[1979 G. Mitchell Mudflats of Dead iii.]
L8r
I WANT MY PENNY BACK!
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