Dough Meaning Money Is a Bread Joke
Dough is a mixture of flour and liquid. As slang for money it plays on bread, which has meant money for even longer.
Dough is a thick mixture of flour and liquid, kneaded and baked. The slang sense of money follows *bread*, which had already meant livelihood for centuries — as in *breadwinner*. Nineteenth-century American slang simply moved one step back in the process, from the loaf to the dough. The word is one of the worst spellings in English: *-ough* is pronounced at least seven ways, in *dough*, *cough*, *rough*, *through*, *thought*, *bough* and *thorough*.
- A flour mixture. *Knead the dough.*
- Money (slang). *Plenty of dough.*
- Doughy — soft and pale. *A doughy texture.*
- Sourdough — dough raised by wild yeast. *A sourdough loaf.*
- Doughnut — from the same word. *A doughnut.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Noun | dough | Bread dough. |
| Adjective | doughy | Doughy bread. |
| Compound | sourdough | Sourdough. |
| Compound | doughnut | A doughnut. |
| Old English | dag | Dough. |
- Leave the dough to rise for an hour.Baking.
- He made serious dough on that deal.Slang.
- Dough, cough and rough do not rhyme.Spelling.
Seven ways to say -ough
- Dough — rhymes with go
- Cough — rhymes with off
- Rough — rhymes with cuff
- Through — rhymes with too
- Thought, bough, thorough — three more, all different
Old English *dag*, from a Germanic root meaning to knead or form, related to *lady* and *dairy* through the same idea.
Why does dough mean money?
It follows bread, which has meant livelihood for centuries. American slang moved the image one step back in the baking.
How many ways is -ough pronounced?
At least seven in common words: dough, cough, rough, through, thought, bough and thorough.