Monday 29 January 2007

Phrase of the Day! 12: 'make ends meet'

"to make ends meet"

definition: if somebody finds it hard to make ends meet, they have problems living on the money they earn.

(vyjít s penězi, vystačit s příjmem)

example: I can hardly make ends meet on my salary.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Interesting. Does "ends" refer to the ends of subsequent periods in which the salary is due?

Matt Ford said...

From what I can find out....

The phrase dates from at least the seventeenth century, and finds its origins in bookkeeping: The end of the income column on a bookkeeper's ledger contains a figure, and for the books to balance this must match or exceed the corresponding figure at the bottom of the expenditure column.