Dear LPG readers,

Have you ever noticed just how many odd things we English people say, things that would leave someone who has learned our language after knowing another one completely baffled? Many of our most modern expressions are now Americanisms, and we all understand what they mean even though they often make little sense when said or written as part of a sentence.

Allow me to illustrate with a story…

One Saturday recently, a friend and I decided to meet up outside New Cross train station. It had been ages since we last saw each other, and as it was a really sunny day, we decided not to take a bus. We turned left outside the station and went for a walk, which didn’t take too long to lead us past the left turn onto Deptford High Street. We couldn’t help but take a look, and the market was in full swing (well, as full as it is these days), and it didn’t take long for us to reach Douglas Way. Walking up that road took us to the market, and it’s really hard not to see something retro there. That day, it was a couple of vintage records by my all-time favourite retro band, which would catch anyone’s eye.

My friend was more interested in reaching our destination, but the records stopped me in my tracks. Even though I didn’t have much money with me, I was determined to go home with them. I took a look, and they seemed sound enough, although I think that having them was far more important than being able to play them. The sleeves were in immaculate condition. Haggling takes time, and my exasperated friend found herself waiting as the topics of quality and a matching price grew quite petty. I can be quite persuasive, and I managed to bring the stall holder round to my way of thinking while he worked out that parting with them at the price he had in mind was going to be a challenge.

It was clear that he wanted to sell, and I wanted to buy. In the end, I left the stall with a carrier bag bearing the items and what I’d call a fair amount of change in my pocket, but not before my poor friend stopped the negotiations in their tracks by telling us to stop haggling and ‘just cut the deal.’

I got a good one in the end. However, when I really thought about it, I began questioning why, beyond the chat and some money, I would need a sharp implement to accomplish my ultimate shopping goal. In other words, why would I need to ‘cut’ the deal?

When I got home, I looked up the origin of that phrase and found the possible answer…

Apparently, deal-cutting is an age-old practice mentioned in the Bible. In Genesis 15:9-21, God and Abram cut a deal with the help of some animals. There was apparently some serious cutting and bloodshed involved. 

These days, we can all agree that exchanging money or shaking hands will suffice. Still, I have concluded that having learnt just what was involved in deal-cutting before we started doing it with money, I will take any future bargains and agreements I make a lot more seriously. 

WP, Catford.

WP shares what she has learned about the origins of deal-cutting, although she warns that most of what she has learned leads back to evidence from the Bible …         

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