Careful Words

bargain (n.)

bargain (v.)

bargain (adv.)

Lest the bargain should catch cold and starve.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Cymbeline. Act i. Sc. 4.

The boy hath sold him a bargain,—a goose.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Love's Labour's Lost. Act iii. Sc. 1.

But in the way of bargain, mark ye me,

I 'll cavil on the ninth part of a hair.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): King Henry IV. Part I. Act iii. Sc. 1.

  The agricultural population, says Cato, produces the bravest men, the most valiant soldiers, and a class of citizens the least given of all to evil designs. . . . A bad bargain is always a ground for repentance.

Pliny The Elder (23-79 a d): Natural History. Book xviii. Sect. 26.

To sell a bargain well is as cunning as fast and loose.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Love's Labour's Lost. Act iii. Sc. 1.

  There's two words to that bargain.

Jonathan Swift (1667-1745): Polite Conversation. Dialogue iii.