3 ms·
2 bit is still used in Canada as an indicator of something less than good, otherwise unused.
by neom 3y ago
2 bit is still used in Canada as an indicator of something less than good, otherwise unused.
- pavel_lishin 3y agoI've definitely heard expressions that go something like, "Why you no-good, two-bit etc etc!", and never connected that to this until now.
- TeMPOraL 3y agoMe neither! I always tentatively assumed it's about computer bits, where two bits would be "not much", and that somehow it entered into normie vernacular. So, TIL that this is another case of society and culture in the 19th and 20th century US evolving primarily around the stock exchange :o.
- bregma 3y agoTIL Yosemite Sam was the rootinest, tootinest computer geek this side of the Pecos.
- madcaptenor 3y agoAnd of course bytes are divided into eight bits - but that's just a coincidence, because bits came first and byte sizes weren't standardized until the 1970s.
- samatman 3y agoI suspect that "bit" for binary digit and "bit" as in "two bits" is a deliberate convergence more than pure coincidence. Tukey coined the term right after the war, which is a cultural high water mark for the term two bits. It doesn't hurt that "a bit" also means the least of something one might reasonably consider, this is where the bit as a sliver of the Spanish Dollar comes from in the first place, eight pieces being about as small as it was feasible to divide the coin into. Hence two bits for the quarter.
- al_borland 3y agoI grew up on the US hearing this usage, but it was primarily in Looney Tunes.
- dustincoates 3y agoSame in the US, but I can't imagine anyone would be able to accurately pinpoint its etymology.
- neom 3y agoSurprised to hear that, I would have guessed folks over 40 would be accustomed to "2-bit wh*re" - my dad used to scream that all the time about his personal banker "god damn that man he's a f'ing 2 bit wh..." - pretty sure my grandpa used it regularly also. Maybe my family are not the most refined of people. ;)
- beezle 3y agoLikewise, high school football cheerleaders '2 bits, 4 bits, 6 bits a dollar all for XXXXX stand up and holler"
- jdminhbg 3y agoI was familiar with this as a high schooler but it never occurred to me that 2 bits was 1/4 of a dollar. It was like a nursery rhyme where you don't really think about what the words actually mean.
- bitwize 3y agoBack in the 90s, the anti-Microsoft movement had a slogan that went something like: "Windows: a 32-bit layer on top of a 16-bit operating system originally for an 8-bit CPU derived from a 4-bit microcontroller, by a 2-bit company that can't stand 1 bit of competition."
- harimau777 3y agoIn the US it would still be fairly common for someone to know that "two bits" can mean a quarter, but it's not used much in common conversation. I don't know if this is just me, but I particularly associate it with a purposely colloquial or "old timey" register of speech. In my head I can envision a carny with a Foghorn Leghorn accent selling me a ticket to the Ferris wheel, "That'll be two bits, son".
- kayodelycaon 3y agoI'm nearly 40 and spent most of my life in the northern midwest. Never heard "two bits" before.