unearths some literary gems.
From Murder by the Book, by Jennifer Rowe:
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The phone rang forlornly, as though it had been ringing for some time and had given up hope of ever being answered.
***
"I don't give a continental what Malcolm thinks, I can tell you!"
[Not giving a continental was a new one on me, so I did some research. What follows is some info from the OED, in case you also need to know more about not giving continentals.]
"Used as a depreciatory epithet (originally with reference to currency). (Cf. sense B. 2b below.*) U.S. colloquial."
*"A currency note issued by the Continental Congress during the war; the depreciation of which afterwards gave rise to the phrases not worth a continental and not to care (or give) a continental. orig. U.S."
1851 Knickerbocker 37 554 That clock you sold me ain't worth a continental cuss.
1874 E. Eggleston Circuit Rider (1903) 148 I tole him as how I didn't keer three continental derns fer his whole band.
1890 Amer. Notes & Queries 5 169 ‘A Tinker's Dam’ is equivalent to the expression, ‘A Continental Damn’.
[Interestingly, the Jennifer Rowe books are set in Australia (and are as recent as ~30 years ago).]
