Learn English – the origin of “burning a hole in the pocket”

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It's an old expression, but when someone used it today it made me wonder about how the phrase came to mean what it does.

Coinage would not seem to bear an association to being on fire, though if metal coins were red-hot they certainly would sear a hole through most clothing materials.

Paper money can catch fire, and would then catch fire to clothing in order to burn a hole.

The pocket is general sewn of material that is a lighter-weight fabric than the rest of the garment, resulting in it being easier to wear and acquire holes (that can lose money and other valuables)

I understand that the word 'hot' has a general usage to mean 'moving fast' or otherwise 'very active'.

So, I grasp that this can be associated with the desire to spend money. I then can make the humorous-leap to said 'hot money' effecting a hole in one's pocket. I'd really rather hear an explicitly validated origin, rather than me making up all this in my head, though.

Best Answer

Money burns a hole in my pocket.

The Phrase Finder shows very old usages of the idiom, which clearly suggests a sense of urgency to get rid of something because it is supposedly too hot:

  • "It was only a bit of change, but it was plainly burning a hole in his pocket." As though it were something hot, he wanted to pull the money out--and get rid of it by spending it. This can be used of almost anything that a new owner wants to use or spend right away.

    • In the 18th century it was sometimes expressed as "burning in one's pocket" or something similar. Two examples cited by the OED are 1740 MRS. DELANY Autobiog. & Corr. II. 165 The post brought me your letter, which burnt in my pocket. 1768 TUCKER Lt. Nat. I. 152 Children..cannot rest till they get rid of their money, or, as we say, it burns in their pockets."

  • The more modern version appeared at least as early as the 19th century: "1857 TROLLOPE Three Clerks II. ix. 198 How was she to give him the purse? It was burning a hole in her pocket till she could do so." (Example quoted in the OED, s.v. burn.)

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