Thread: Tell me about "being broke"

Where did the phrase come from?

What does something being broken have to do with having no money?

Chuck Norris breaks you and takes all your money.
/end thread.

Actually, I don't know

From what I was taught...being broke is temporary...being poor is much longer. When people say "I'm broke" it implies that they were once "whole" or in this context "had money." To be poor however implies that one is just flat out lacking in some area(s) of their life. That's why I was taught never to say such things as "I am poor" or "I am broke" seeing as there is also a "poor mentality" associated to that word. Being poor isn't just a state, it's also a state of mind.

Poor mentalities (or "lack" mentality's) seem to be evidenced in people who always complain about what they don't have, are very selfish, slightly bitter, and (to stay true to the context of this thread) they have negative feelings about money (probably unbeknown to them)

Interestingly enough though...people are more readily to say "I am broke" than "I am poor" because being poor is associated with the image of having absolutely nothing whereas the phrase "I am broke" implies that one is just down on his/her luck at that point in time.

Earlier, I mentioned that one can be poor and financially well off at the same time. Since being poor is a state not exclusive to finances, that means one can be poor in other areas of their life. A man who has money yet shuns his family is a poor man in my eyes. Subjective as the term may be, I don't think there's any argument there.

Jeff, very insightful post!

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I tried to find the etymology of the idiom but could come up with a solid origin. I also looked for similar phrases such as "break the bank" and "going for broke" (most likely coming from gambling terms), but there didn't seem to be anything concrete.

Web www.phrases.org.uk
Re: Break even, still.

Posted by R. Berg on September 01, 2004
Definitions of phrases like "break even" often, perhaps almost always, neglect to show the connection between the normal use of the key words and this particular use. What does "break" mean in this case? The OED, which gives the standard definition, is not of much use in finding this connection. My own theory, which is worth as much as most "folk-etymologies," is that asking the question, Which way did it break? might be helpful. Perhaps there's no simple analogy to breaking an array of billiard balls, but we often hear that something broke to the right or to the left, or that the break came in such and such a place. Which way do the accounts break, towards credits or debits? I've never heard that, of course, but someone imaginative might see how things might break in such a fashion as to leave the bettor, the entrepreneur, the investor, exactly where he started.

According to http://www.westegg.com/etymology/;

Broke (In the sense of having no money)
Many banks in post-Renaissance Europe issued small, porcelain "borrower's tiles" to their creditworthy customers. Like credit cards, these tiles were imprinted with the owner's name, his credit limit, and the name of the bank. Each time the customer wanted to borrow money, he had to present the tile to the bank teller, who would compare the imprinted credit limit with how much the customer had already borrowed. If the borrower were past the limit, the teller "broke" the tile on the spot.

Ah, thank you.