Meaning
A maxim asserting that time is a finite resource with a cash value, so wasting it is equivalent to wasting money. It is used to justify charging by the hour, to hurry the slow, or to describe an efficiency-driven culture, and is often quoted wearily or ironically by those on the receiving end. Proverbial and often quoted knowingly; can sound bossy or mercenary when overused. Regional use: General English.
Origin
Benjamin Franklin is the famous carrier: 'Remember that time is money' opens the moral arithmetic of his Advice to a Young Tradesman, written on 21 July 1748, where a man who can earn ten shillings a day by his labour and idles away half of it has, in effect, tossed five shillings down the drain. But the exact wording predates him: Quote Investigator traces 'That Time is Money' to The Free-Thinker of 18 May 1719, a London periodical, and the Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs, cited by QI, lists a classical Greek forerunner attributed to Antiphon - 'the most costly outlay is time' - along with 1572's 'tyme is precious'. Franklin, an almanac writer famous for recycling older saws, popularized rather than coined it, and American business culture did the rest.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- remember that time is money
- time equals money
Usage Examples
- The consultant checked her watch and reminded the room that time is money.
- If time is money, then this queue is costing me a fortune.
- He keeps repeating that time is money, yet he spent the whole afternoon arguing about a parking meter.