# Hotter than a $2 pistol **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 16, 2015, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hotter-than-a-2-pistol/712829 "2015-02-16T17:24:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2015, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hotter-than-a-2-pistol/712829/1 "2015-02-16T17:24:52Z")
What is the origin of the phrase ‘hotter than a $2 pistol’? Years ago, someone told me that it came from the [FP-45 Liberator pistol](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FP-45_Liberator), which indeed cost about $2. A cheap pistol like that _would_ get hot; but since it was a single-shot, I don’t think it would get hot enough to evoke the phrase. When and where did the phrase originate? ---
**Author:** ![I.Dunno](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9f8e36/32.png) [@I.Dunno](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I.Dunno)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2015, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hotter-than-a-2-pistol/712829/2 "2015-02-16T17:28:54Z")
I always thought it meant a stolen gun that sold cheap on the street. (Hot meaning stolen in this case.) ---
**Author:** ![GaryM](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garym/32/241_2.png) [@GaryM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GaryM)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2015, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hotter-than-a-2-pistol/712829/3 "2015-02-16T18:06:32Z")
Yep, stolen gun passed around on the street is what I’ve always heard. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2015, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hotter-than-a-2-pistol/712829/4 "2015-02-16T18:23:04Z")
> [@GaryM](#): > > Yep, stolen gun passed around on the street is what I’ve always heard. It’s not an expression I’m familiar with, but this would be my read on it, too. ---
**Author:** ![Ornery\_Bob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/da6949/32.png) [@Ornery\_Bob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ornery_Bob)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2015, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hotter-than-a-2-pistol/712829/5 "2015-02-16T20:08:18Z")
From [The Phrase Finder](http://www.phrases.org.uk/bulletin_board/49/messages/897.html): Hotter than a two-dollar pistol - Very hot, an allusion to cheap 19th-century pistols that go hot when fired. From the Mountain Range chapter,“Facts on File Dictionary of American Regionalisms: Local Expressions from Coast to Coast” by Robert Hendrickson (Facts on File, New York, 2000). Page 376. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2015, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hotter-than-a-2-pistol/712829/6 "2015-02-16T20:53:31Z")
Yet another phrase I’ve never heard! ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2015, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hotter-than-a-2-pistol/712829/7 "2015-02-16T20:57:49Z")
So how is this phrase used colloquially? ---
**Author:** ![GaryM](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garym/32/241_2.png) [@GaryM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GaryM)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2015, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hotter-than-a-2-pistol/712829/8 "2015-02-16T21:05:15Z")
“That gal’s hotter than a $2 pistol” meaning that you’d not be adverse to spending some time with her. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2015, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hotter-than-a-2-pistol/712829/9 "2015-02-16T21:09:08Z")
I’d say it has a more negative connotation: someone hiding out from the cops is “hotter than a $2 pistol” for everyone hiding him or around him. I can think of more uses of it that way than as in “damn, she’s hot!” I’ve also heard it used for heat-hot: “Damn, that lawnmower’s hotter than…” “That sun is…” “This room is…” But metaphorical bad-heat trouble is what I’d put as definition #1. ---
**Author:** ![rsa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/839c29/32.png) [@rsa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rsa)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2015, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hotter-than-a-2-pistol/712829/10 "2015-02-16T21:44:50Z")
Although I’ve heard the phrase, I think its actual use is rare. Interestingly, Ngram Viewer for ["two dollar pistol"](https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=two+dollar+pistol&year_start=1800&year_end=2000&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t1%3B%2Ctwo%20dollar%20pistol%3B%2Cc0)shows a sharp rise in printed use from about 1964 to 1977 and then a precipitous drop from 1978 to 1985. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2015, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hotter-than-a-2-pistol/712829/11 "2015-02-16T21:47:46Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > I’ve also heard it used for heat-hot: “Damn, that lawnmower’s hotter than…” “That sun is…” “This room is…” This is how dad used it. (We lived in the desert, y’see…) ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2015, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hotter-than-a-2-pistol/712829/12 "2015-02-16T21:52:02Z")
> [@rsa](#): > > Although I’ve heard the phrase, I think its actual use is rare. Interestingly, Ngram Viewer for ["two dollar pistol"](https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=two+dollar+pistol&year_start=1800&year_end=2000&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t1%3B%2Ctwo%20dollar%20pistol%3B%2Cc0)shows a sharp rise in printed use from about 1964 to 1977 and then a precipitous drop from 1978 to 1985. Maybe you need to [account for inflation.](http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/hot+as+a+three-dollar+pistol) (Apparently, there is a “$3 pistol” variant.) ---
**Author:** ![drachillix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/48db29/32.png) [@drachillix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drachillix)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2015, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hotter-than-a-2-pistol/712829/13 "2015-02-16T22:21:11Z")
Hotter than a $2 pistol is going to mean, hot as in do not want to hold it for any period of time. IF someone sold you a handgun for $2 they wanted it out of their hands for deniability purposes.