Meaning
Exactly equal or fairly balanced, especially once debts, favours or points have been settled between two people, so that nothing is owed on either side; also used of contests or odds meaning 'equally likely'. The form without the s is more common in American English, the form with it in British and Australian English. Casual and slightly playful; used mostly of settled scores, shared costs and evenly matched chances. Regional use: General English.
Origin
The Phrase Finder archive retells a popular story, sourced to Robert Hendrickson's Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins (1997), that the phrase stems from a quip recorded in Jonathan Swift's Journal to Stella (1710-13), "'Now we are even,' quote Steven"; this remains anecdotal rather than demonstrable. The documented record points elsewhere: the OED's entry dates 'even Steven' from 1837, and Grammarist describes it as a mid-nineteenth-century Americanism in which the name Steven was added purely for rhyme and rhythm, a reduplicating intensive rather than a reference to any real person. A New Zealand racehorse named Even Stevens that won major cups in Australia in 1962 briefly amplified the phrase there, but it was named after the expression, not the other way round.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- even stephens
- even Steven
- even-steven (attributive, before a noun)
Usage Examples
- I paid for dinner and you covered the taxi, so we are even Stevens.
- After two wins apiece the series stood even Stevens going into the final match.
- Lend me twenty until Friday and we will call it even Stevens for the concert tickets.