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Origin documented
“Not worth a farthing”
What it means
Entirely worthless.
Where it comes from
A farthing was a quarter of a penny, the smallest coin in circulation and the smallest sum expressible in sterling. To be worth less than one was to be worth nothing at all.
How sure are we?
Literal, from the Old English feorthing, a fourth part. Inflation eventually did what the phrase implied: the farthing was demonetised in 1960, having become genuinely worthless.