- In 2011, this appeared: “He’s already indicated plans to draw sharp contrasts between his ideas on the economy and the Republican approach, which the president recently dismissed as a ‘bill of goods’ that amounts to little more than slashing spending on vital programs like education and Medicare.”
- In 1933, this: “What has become of the old fashioned salesman who got his customer drunk and then sold him a bill of goods?”
- Back in 1842: “The merchant, who receives a bill of goods from his correspondent in London or Liverpool, is particular not only to file that bill for future reference, but to copy it entire into an invoice book.”
- Originally a “bill of goods” was what we might today call a “packing list.” In the shipping business, it’s called a “bill of lading.” Toward the end of the 1900s “bill of goods” was used not for the list, but for the shipment itself; the stuff someone had sold. And then around the 1920s the two meanings were combined with a new twist — selling a list of items, but then the promised shipment either doesn’t arrive or isn’t what was promised. “Selling a bill of goods” came to mean “getting cheated.”
- Since the 1920s, the cheating aspect of “bill of goods” has begun to fade in its literal meaning, but it’s still used figuratively to mean anything that’s not quite as it seems initially. Not only are there no actual goods involved any more, there probably isn’t a list either.
- As for why any of these were called “bills” in the first place, it all goes back to Latin. “Bill” comes from the word “bulla,” which itself shifted meanings from classical Latin, when it meant an amulet on a necklace, to medieval Latin, when it came to mean a seal, like the wax seal on an official document. From there, still in Latin, it shifted again to mean the official document itself, whether it had a seal or not. That’s the source of the term, used in the Catholic church, “papal bull,” which is a document issued by the pope.
- “Bulla” came into English as “bill” or “bille” around the 1300s, and it’s still used to mean a document that’s in some sense official, from a Congressional bill that becomes a law, to the bill indicating the amount you owe for lunch, to the dollar bills you pay your bill with. Nowadays it’s a word that, more often than not, is used in combination: bill of fare, bill of rights, bill of attorney, bill of lading, and so on. There are dozens of these.
- When “bill” arrived in English from Latin, though, there was already a “bill” — which had been around since Old English and meant a sword, spear, or similar weapon. And there was already another “bill” — also from Old English, meaning the beak of a bird when it was flat, like a duck’s. These two “bills” are so old nobody’s sure, but they may have come from the same Germanic roots.
- That’s not all, though; English had — and still has, for that matter — a whole bill of “bills.” Used as a verb, “bill” means to peck or hack at (using your bill or your bill), charge for something (presenting a bill), to touch affectionately (this one comes from observing the behavior of some birds), to make an entry in a ledger, to advertise, to enroll someone (in the army, for example), and to spoof or lampoon someone.
- If that weren’t enough, there’s also “billet,” which means a short document, an informal document, a military order (e.g. to provide lodging for soldiers), the place where the soldiers are lodged, a thick piece of material (usually wood or metal) ready to be cut to a smaller shape for some purpose, and don’t forget there’s a kind of fish called a “billet.”
- If you find this recitation of the bill of bills and billets boring, maybe that’s because it’s presented in bill form.
