# "two-bit" as an insult can still be used! **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 6, 2004, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-bit-as-an-insult-can-still-be-used/223038 "2004-01-06T17:04:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![pizzabrat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e9c0ed/32.png) [@pizzabrat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pizzabrat)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2004, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-bit-as-an-insult-can-still-be-used/223038/1 "2004-01-06T17:04:09Z")
Back in the old days, if you called something “a two-bit something-or-other”, you were saying it was cheap, because it’s only worth a quarter (two bits). Nobody uses two bits to mean a quarter these days, but in the age of bits and bytes, the term doesn’t have to be obselete! Two bits is extremely small, since it takes eight of them to make just one byte, so calling something “two-bit” in the modern sense still can convey worthlessness! Example: “I’m tired of this two-bit X-Box crap!” Eh? Eh? ---
**Author:** ![sultana\_of\_slash](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbe5ce/32.png) [@sultana\_of\_slash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sultana_of_slash)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2004, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-bit-as-an-insult-can-still-be-used/223038/2 "2004-01-06T21:09:55Z")
I once had a two-bit death ray. Wonder what it would have brought on E-Bay. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2004, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-bit-as-an-insult-can-still-be-used/223038/3 "2004-01-07T00:49:20Z")
Well, actually, $.25 is pretty damn worthless these days, much more so now then when the expression first appeared. We may still need to use a quarter for a vending machine or the laundry, but it’s not like you can ever use just _one_. You need a pocketful. It’s arguable that when people started using the two-bit insult, a quarter was worth at least $5.00 in today’s money. Yet we’d never say, “you cheap half-sawbuck scalawag”!. Amazingly, we still **think** of five dollars as being a respectable sum of money. I guess we’re just becoming too petty to update our insults according to inflation. ---
**Author:** ![bughunter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/aeb1de/32.png) [@bughunter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bughunter)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2004, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-bit-as-an-insult-can-still-be-used/223038/4 "2004-01-07T01:05:39Z")
Well it is still used… haven’t you ever seen this gem? > [@](#): > > “Windows: A thirty-two bit extension and graphical shell to a sixteen-bit patch to an eight-bit operating system originally coded for a four-bit microprocessor which was written by a two-bit company that can’t stand one bit of competition.” – Jargon File Resouces. ---
**Author:** ![bughunter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/aeb1de/32.png) [@bughunter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bughunter)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2004, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-bit-as-an-insult-can-still-be-used/223038/5 "2004-01-07T01:05:40Z")
Well it is still used… haven’t you ever seen this gem? > [@](#): > > “Windows: A thirty-two bit extension and graphical shell to a sixteen-bit patch to an eight-bit operating system originally coded for a four-bit microprocessor which was written by a two-bit company that can’t stand one bit of competition.” – Jargon File Resouces. ---
**Author:** ![bughunter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/aeb1de/32.png) [@bughunter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bughunter)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2004, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-bit-as-an-insult-can-still-be-used/223038/6 "2004-01-07T01:14:11Z")
:groan: Believe it or not, that was my _first double post ever_. I’m usually very good about only hitting submit once… I don’t know what happened this time. ---
**Author:** ![Jenaroph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e8c25b/32.png) [@Jenaroph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jenaroph)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2004, 6:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-bit-as-an-insult-can-still-be-used/223038/7 "2004-01-07T06:41:14Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by sultana of slash \* > \*\*I once had a two-bit death ray. Wonder what it would have brought on E-Bay. \*\* It might garner as much as $19.20 nowadays. ---
**Author:** ![Horseflesh](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horseflesh/32/7502_2.png) [@Horseflesh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horseflesh)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2004, 8:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-bit-as-an-insult-can-still-be-used/223038/8 "2004-01-07T08:54:47Z")
Emilio Estevez is gonna be so pissed at you **pizzabrat**. Speakiing of [Tube-It](http://www.vgmuseum.com/images/arcade3/01/186.html)…