英语词汇not worth a red cent的起源、历史背景-英语词源词典

not worth a red cent. American pennies—once made with more copper, and thus redder—were formerly called reds, which is what a Californian describing a card game in 1849 meant when he observed, “Silver is not plenty . . . on the tables and anybody can . . . bet a red on any card he chuses.” This ac- counts for the expression not worth a red cent, which has roots in the British “not worth a brass farthing” and which remains a good descriptive phrase because the penny still has enough copper in it to appear reddish.

词汇	not worth a red cent
词源	not worth a red cent. American pennies—once made with more copper, and thus redder—were formerly called reds, which is what a Californian describing a card game in 1849 meant when he observed, “Silver is not plenty . . . on the tables and anybody can . . . bet a red on any card he chuses.” This ac- counts for the expression not worth a red cent, which has roots in the British “not worth a brass farthing” and which remains a good descriptive phrase because the penny still has enough copper in it to appear reddish.
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