# What does 'dog-cheap' mean?

'Dog-cheap' means extremely cheap — a perversion of Old English 'god-chepe', a good bargain. Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898), human-proofread transcription on English Wikisource records: “A perversion of the old English god-chepe (a good bargain). French, bon marché (good-cheap or bargain). "The sack . . . would have bought me lights as good-cheap at the dearest chandler's in Europe."— Shakespeare: 1 Henry IV., iii. 3.”

## What it means

- Verbatim from Brewer's (1898): A perversion of the old English god-chepe (a good bargain). French, bon marché (good-cheap or bargain). "The sack . . . would have bought me lights as good-cheap at the dearest chandler's in Europe."— Shakespeare: 1 Henry IV., iii. 3.

## Action steps

1. Modern usage: 'Dog-cheap' means extremely cheap — a perversion of Old English 'god-chepe', a good bargain.
2. When quoting the origin, cite Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898) — this is a 19th-century record, not a modern etymology.

## Sources

- [Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898) — Wikisource proofread text](https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Brewer%27s_Dictionary_of_Phrase_and_Fable/Dog-cheap)

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