DCHP-1 Online

bit † 

• 1 n. See 1880 and 1913 quotes.

  See also: four bits  two bits  six bits  

  • Originally in American use as a translation of Spanish pieca piece of eight, that is, a Spanish dollar. Later, with reference to a real, a small Spanish silver coin, or, especially, one of the bits into which physically large coins were sometimes divided. The term took on various senses in different places during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. In current North American use, it may be seen in the slang terms two bits, four bits, and six bits, that is, 25 cents, 50 cents, and 75 cents, respectively.

  • 1860  Thinking that whisky selling was the easiest way in which to raise the odd "bit," he had just succeeded in effecting the sale of a bottle of lightning to a Siwash. . . .
  • 1880  Copper currency is unknown, the smallest coin being a "bit"--that is, the English sixpence, whose nearest equivalent is the ten-cent piece.
  • 1913  Bit, the old 12 1/2-cent piece of the United States was called a bit, and a defaced 20-cent piece was termed a long bit, while the old York shilling of Canada, valued at 12 1/2 cents, was also known as a bit.
  • 1952  (1965)  . . . old residents of British Columbia prided themselves on using no sum less than a bit, or, twelve and a half cents. In 1861 newspapers were still sold for a bit, either a liberal fifteen cents, or a stingy ten cents.

• 2 n. Obs. a gold nugget.

  • 1859  (1935)  It requires two to work a rocker well, one to dig and the other to wash and collect the "bits."