what is the meaning behind the cheer "two bits, four bits, six bits a dollar"?

Question

The cheer goes "two bits, four bits, six bits a dollar, all for the ____ stand up and holler"......what is a bit, and what does this cheer actually mean? Is there historical meaning, where did it originate?

Answer 1

In fact, old coins were indeed chopped up into eighths (something like the pirates' "pieces of eight"), and the same once was done to the dollar coin way back when. So, two bits (as in "shave and a haircut, two bits") was 25 cents.



Old-time sporting cheers often didn't make grammatical sense, but they did rhyme, and they were fun to shout out at the sporting event. (I remember from the Bugs Bunny cartoon: "Bric-a-brac-a firecracker, siss-boom-bah! Bugs Bunny! Bugs Bunny! Rah-rah-rah!") So, "Two bits, four bits, six bits, a dollar, all for the ______ stand up and holler," fits the bill.



Not sure of the origin, but I'm familiar with the cheer, as I heard it as well back in my high school days.

Answer 2

Long explanation:



"Dollar" is a mispronunciation of "thaler", a German/Dutch nickname for guilders minted in the Bohemian town of Joachimsthal in the 16th century. By the time of the Elizabethan era, Shakespeare was generically referring to money as "dollars".



This name was transfered to the Spanish gold peso commonly used as currency in the American Colonies (due to scarcity of English specie and frequent trade with the Spanish colonies to the south) in the 18th century. The "Spanish dollar" was also known as a "real de a ocho" or "piece of eight" because it was scored so as to be easily broken into eight pie-slice shaped pieces, or bits, each worth one real, for the ease of making change and to avoid the problem of minting more than one style of coin.



Therefore, a dollar was easily broken into eight bits. The practice was discarded because the pieces never broke evenly, so some of the bits contained more gold than others, even though they were supposed to be worth an equal amount. Unscrupulous people would even shave off a little of the gold in order to short-change others, conserving the scraps in order to mint new coins, etc .



Since the currency of the United States is decimal based a dollar is no longer easliy divisible by eight, but it can be divided into fourths (quarters). Two eighths equal one quarter, so a quarter equals two bits and a dollar still equals eight bits.



Interestingly, the ability to physically break apart a dollar for change has made its way into our modern usage: "Can you break a fifty?" for "Can you make sufficient change if I give you a $50 bill?"

Answer 3

Cheer Meaning

Answer 4

Coinage didn't always match what items cost. A dollar was divided into eighths, one of them was a "bit". A quarter (25 cents) was equal to two bits. So the cheer is really saying 25 cents, fifty cents, seventy five cents, a dollar. It was a way to make a rhyme instead of saying one, two, three, four.

Answer 5

its refering to the wild west days when its was parts of a cion, or bits, were money. 2 bits =25 cents. its just currency changes. like if you had a half dollar and there was somthing for 50 cents, yuou would cut your money in half and give them one bit. of course the actual amount of the value of the bit back in those days wasnt 50 cents and it wasnt relitive to what ever coin you had. it was 1 bit=1/8 a dollar and scince dollars were offten coins, one bit, 1/2 a quater was on of eight pieces of the coin you cut up.

Answer 6

The extremists get observed the main. yet they are those following the bible accurately. maximum of them fairly think of they might desire to rescue actually every physique from the pits of hell, whether or no longer they like to be rescued or no longer. speaking in tongues is purely emotionalism, wishful thinking considering the fact which you think of you're able to desire to conform. If it have been authentic, they might talk in authentic languages that they had in no way discovered, so they might carry forth to people in different worldwide places. that's what got here approximately interior the story in Acts. It grow to be to evangelise. They weren't babbling nonsense words. it fairly is a style of self-hypnosis. i'm specific various the toddlers have been purely making it up and faking so they does no longer be concept failures.

Answer 7

1

Answer 8

2 bits is 25 cents, so it's counting up to $1.00

Answer 9

That makes up the parts of a dollar.



My school cheer was a touch different



"Three dits, one dit, two dits, dah

St Mary's High School, rah, rah, rah!"