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Miscellaneous

Where did the phrase dollars to donuts come from?

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ANSWER

Possibly adapted from "bet dollars to buttons" and "bet dollars to dumplings" that appeared in the 1880s, meaning "to feel almost certain" because the dollars are bet against something nearly worthless and perhaps shaped like a zero.[1]

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The 'Dollars to doughnuts' is a pseudo betting term which indicated short odds - dollars are valuable but donuts aren't. The earliest citation for its use was in ‘The Daily Nevada State Journal’, February 1876.

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