Topical Guide 833
Mark Dorset
Word and Phrase Origins
At Home with the Glynns, Chapter 23:
(“Shelling out,” by the way, has a particularly Babbingtonian resonance for me, since it derives, I think—well, I guess—from Native Americans’ use of clam shells as wampum.)
Peter’s guess is wrong.
Robert Hendrickson, The Facts on File Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins:
shell out. From the actual “shelling out” of peas and corn—removing the first from their pods and removing corn from the cob—came the figurative use of to shell out, “to pay out.” Removing a seed from the pod, etc., is like taking money out of a purse or pocket and furthermore, dried shelled peas and “shelled corn,” as it was called in American, were often a medium of exchange in the past. The phrase is first recorded in 1825.
The Compact Edtion of the Oxford English Dictionary:
See also:
Words TG 11; Watchwords, Mottoes, Words of Wisdom, Words to Live by, Words to the Wise TG 370; Meaning TG 510; Word Choice: Accuracy, Le Mot Juste TG 510; Misnomers TG 513, Word and Phrase Origins TG 754
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