heads or harps
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.58 in modern English
21
Scrabble Score
12
Letters
2
Syllables
8
Unique Chars
Meaning
Example Sentences
- "A quarrel happened between two shoeblacks, who were playing at what in England is called pitch farthing, or heads and tails, and in Ireland, head or harp."
- "...he took out his purse, and, extracting half-a-crown, threw it up to the ceiling, saying, “Well, Dot—head or harp? If you’re right, you have them.” “Harp,” cried Dot. They both examined the coin. “They’re yours,” said Frank, with much solemnity..."
- "There was a family of peasants who never could make up their minds; they decided everything by a toss-up. The head of the family had settled the amount of dowry he got with his wife by ‘heads or harps,’ and when he died he left his land to be tossed for by his two sons."
- "He dearly loves to smoke cigarettes and many of them, and he has an insurmountable weakness for the recondite mysteries of "Pitch and Toss," and when he has mastered the intricacies of the game, can foretell by repeatedly turning a copper in his hand while the stakes are revolving in the air whether they will settle on the ground heads or harps up."
- "He looked up as they came nearer. ‘Hey, lads. Lookin’ for a game?’ ‘A game?’ Victor said. ‘Pitch an’ toss.’ He spun the ha’penny, watched it fall between two broken pieces of brick and cocked his foxy head at the two boys. ‘Heads or harps?’ ‘Harps,’ Victor said. ‘You win,’ Denis Doyle said."
- "JIMMY. Heads or harps? TONY. Heads. JIMMY. (Tosses the coin onto the back of his hand.) Hard luck. Ha ha ha."
Etymology
Copper coins minted in Georgian Ireland had the head of the British monarch on the obverse and the Irish harp on the reverse. The phrase "heads or harps" remained common even after 1823, when Irish minting ceased and only British coinage circulated; it was still current when the Irish Free State restored the harp on its newly introduced coins in 1927.
Usage
Inflected Forms
head or harp (alternative)