My Two Cents ... XI

Today's phrase is, unfortunately, only too well known among many freelancers, whether it be freelance writers, translators, designers...

"to be broke"

What does it mean?

If you say, "I'm broke", you mean you have no money left. You are rather poor and struggle to pay your bills. You can do ok part of the month and only be broke towards the end when the money runs low, or you can be broke completely, maybe have more debts than you know how to pay off.

Where does it come from?

It is an American slang term which was first used in this meaning in the 17th century. It probably comes from the term that creditors break a debtor. Another American word which came into use in the 19th century is busted. Busted and broke seem to be interchangeable, though I guess broke is more widely known. The English equivalent of broke would be skint (derived from "skinned").

My two cents on it:

I was very surprised to learn about the English slang term "to be skint" as equivalent to the American term "to be broke/busted". The first entries I found in Google when I searched for the origin of "to be broke" were about skint and gave "to be broke" as meaning which makes me wonder how widely known the English term still is. I have never heard it before, nor have I heard "to be busted".