Dealing with numbers

[Gnisy]

Does anyone know what the phrase " talking nineteen to the dozen " means? I haven't heard about this before but a friend is asking me in preparation for an english exam. Thanks for your answers.

[shaneystar]

This is an informal expression mostly used in British
and Australian English. When you say that someone
"talks nineteen to the dozen" what you mean is that the
individual talks very fast in a non-stop fashion.

"The two women sitting behind us were talking
nineteen to the dozen."


No one is really sure about the origin of this
expression. According to some people, the numbers
refer to the words spoken. Before you manage to open
your mouth, the person talking to you gets in nineteen words .
It could also mean using lots of words to explain something to somebody when fewer words would have explained it just as well.

[Quizmonster]

Click here for a web-page that supplements Shaneystar's fine answer above.

[sslinks]

I remember reading this but I cannot remember the source as it was several years ago.

There was a dam and when there was a lot of rainfall they had to put the pumps on to reduce the water level in the reservoir to reduce the pressure in the dam. The pumps maximum tested rate was (for example) 12 gallons per second (or more likely 12,000 gallons per second but you get the idea).

One time there was a huge deluge over several days and there was a strong possibility of the dam bursting and several villages being washed away. So they put the pumps on faster than they had ever done before up to the absolute maximum of 19 (or 19,000) gallons per second.

Like every good fairy tale the dam (and the villages) were saved.

But when the story was retold people would say that they were pumping 19 instead of 12 gallons per second.

This soon became 19 to the dozen to imply a rapidity that was above the norm.

Hope this helps.

[Quizmonster]

All the earliest uses of the phrase, Sslinks, dating back to the 1780s, refer to the speed of people's speech, so the likelihood that it originated in dams, pumps and gallons is remote...not to say non-existent. A fairy-tale, as you say.