# To coin a phrase?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-coin-a-phrase/370780
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [August 30, 2006, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-coin-a-phrase/370780 "2006-08-30T12:50:01Z")
**Posts on this page:** 8
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Crotalus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crotalus)
#### Post date: [August 30, 2006, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-coin-a-phrase/370780/1 "2006-08-30T12:50:01Z")
I have always assumed that this phrase meant to invent a phrase, to use words together in a novel way. When I see it used lately, it is usually followed by a cliche, rather than an inventive combination of words. What’s the scoop? Did it once mean what I thought it meant, and is now evolving through usage to mean the opposite?
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### Author:  [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)
#### Post date: [August 30, 2006, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-coin-a-phrase/370780/2 "2006-08-30T13:19:16Z")
I don’t remember having heard it used that way. I suspect people who do this are using the phrase ironically. Kind of like saying “Pardon my French” after a string of (non-French) naughty words.
Either that, or the mindless idiots heard enough people using it ironically and starting using it themselves without realizing what it means.
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### Author:  [@KlondikeGeoff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KlondikeGeoff)
#### Post date: [August 30, 2006, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-coin-a-phrase/370780/3 "2006-08-30T16:18:34Z")
I’ve always enjoyed using “To coin a cliche” when appropriate.
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### Author:  [@Crotalus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crotalus)
#### Post date: [August 30, 2006, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-coin-a-phrase/370780/4 "2006-08-30T16:43:50Z")
Hey **Thudlow** , [look what I found!](http://www.wordorigins.org/Words/LetterC/coinaphrase.html)
> [@wordorigins.org](#):
>
> The ironic use of the phrase to coin a phrase to excuse a clichè dates to 1940. From F.B. Young’s Mr. Lucton’s Freedom of that year:
>
> It takes all sorts to make a world, to coin a phrase.
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### Author:  [@CC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CC)
#### Post date: [August 30, 2006, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-coin-a-phrase/370780/5 "2006-08-30T17:26:54Z")
I concur with the interpretation cited in your link, and initially offered by Thudlow. I believe that any other use is one of, shall I say charitably, ignorance of the common usage. It is to be chalked up to youth, probably, and the often accompanying lack of familiarity with literature. Not a bad thing. They’ll grow out of it.
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### Author:  [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)
#### Post date: [August 30, 2006, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-coin-a-phrase/370780/6 "2006-08-30T18:10:13Z")
I suspect this thread might lend credence to the suggestion that, to coin a phrase, people from country X don’t get type of humour Y.
It’s _sarcasm_, folks. It means “I know this is a hackneyed phrase, so I’m going to pretend I just came up with it”.
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### Author:  [@Crotalus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crotalus)
#### Post date: [August 30, 2006, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-coin-a-phrase/370780/7 "2006-08-30T18:45:37Z")
> [@Colophon](#):
>
> I suspect this thread might lend credence to the suggestion that, to coin a phrase, people from country X don’t get type of humour Y.
>
> It’s _sarcasm_, folks. It means “I know this is a hackneyed phrase, so I’m going to pretend I just came up with it”.
I guess it’s possible that I am cross-culturally humor (or humour)-impaired, **Colophon** , but I have seen and heard it used when a truly inventive phrase followed it, and also when a cliche followed it.
For instance, The Telegraph had a headline on a story in 2002 about the euro which read “To coin a phrase, it’s a eurotic experience”. [Link.](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2002/01/03/weur303.xml) This seems to me to be a case of my mistaken understanding of the phrase’s meaning being exhibited in the UK. Now I’m curious as to whether it was originally used unironically, and is now used almost exclusively ironically.
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### Author:  [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)
#### Post date: [August 30, 2006, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-coin-a-phrase/370780/8 "2006-08-30T19:03:09Z")
> [@Crotalus](#):
>
> I guess it’s possible that I am cross-culturally humor (or humour)-impaired, **Colophon** , but I have seen and heard it used when a truly inventive phrase followed it, and also when a cliche followed it.
Yes, it is also used in its original sense too.
> [@](#):
>
> For instance, The Telegraph had a headline on a story in 2002 about the euro which read “To coin a phrase, it’s a eurotic experience”. [Link.](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2002/01/03/weur303.xml) This seems to me to be a case of my mistaken understanding of the phrase’s meaning being exhibited in the UK. Now I’m curious as to whether it was originally used unironically, and is now used almost exclusively ironically.
I wouldn’t say “almost exclusively”. The original sense is as you suspect, but I have seen it still used in that way quite often. The ironic sense is probably the more common of the two now, though.