Meaning
For a very low price; for a fraction of something's real worth, almost always with verbs of buying or selling, as when a treasured asset goes for a song. The phrase typically implies a careless, desperate or uninformed seller rather than a generous bargain being shared. Informal; nearly always frames the deal as a bargain won at the seller's expense. Regional use: General English.
Origin
First attested in Shakespeare's All's Well That Ends Well, written around 1601-1604, when the Clown remarks of a man who 'had this trick of melancholy sold a goodly manor for a song' (Act 3, Scene 2). The Online Etymology Dictionary records the expression as colloquial for 'a trifle, for little or nothing' and notes that Old French had an identical image, 'por du son', meaning for bran, which suggests the comparison of nearly worthless things with refuse is older than the English phrase. The popular explanation - that goods changed hands for no more than the penny price of a street ballad - is reasonable inference but not documented, and no particular ballad trade underlies the early citations.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- buy for a song
- for a mere song
- going for a song
- sell for a song
Usage Examples
- When the gallery closed, collectors picked up serious canvases for a song.
- He bought the cottage for a song in the 1990s, long before the coast became fashionable.
- If the airline keeps canceling routes, its regional jets will go for a song at auction.