Meaning
Extremely useful or valuable, as in 'a calm navigator is worth their weight in gold on a polar expedition'. Invariably hyperbolic praise for a person or thing that proves indispensably helpful; the form shifts between 'worth your/his/her weight in gold' for people and 'worth its weight in gold' for things. Warm, emphatic register of praise; always hyperbolic, never literal. Regional use: General English.
Origin
The comparison of a person's value to their bodily weight in gold is ancient. Dictionary.com, drawing on the American Heritage and Random House idiom references, states the metaphoric term dates from Roman times and appeared in English by the early 1300s, and the same reference tradition notes the Roman playwright Plautus was fond of the metaphor and quotes Henry Medwall's interlude Nature (c. 1500): 'Nay ye ar worth thy weyght of gold'. Gold, weighed out on scales, was the ancient world's ultimate measure of worth, which is what gave the image its force. The idiom has remained continuously current since, with no rival origin story.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- Worth his/her weight in gold
- Worth one's weight in gold
- Worth your weight in gold
Usage Examples
- During the outage, that hand-cranked torch was worth its weight in gold.
- A good dramaturg is worth their weight in gold when you are adapting a four-hundred-page novel.
- Grandma's childcare help was worth its weight in gold in the twins' first year.