Entry · catalog no. 3358

cold in hand

/ /koʊld ɪn hænd/ /KOHLD-in-HAND

phrase · Nationwide · 1920s

✓ Verified

Flat broke; caught without money in your hand when you need it.

“I'd help you out but I'm cold in hand till Friday.”

Origin & Attribution

A blues-era African American expression for being without money, carried through the classic blues of the 1920s. Bessie Smith cut "Cold in Hand Blues" in 1925, the flip side of "St. Louis Blues," where the phrase names a woman left with nothing by a man who spends everywhere but home. Zora Neale Hurston later listed it among Harlem slang.

1925

Bessie Smith records "Cold in Hand Blues"

1942

Listed in Zora Neale Hurston's Glossary of Harlem Slang

Region of origin

West

Midwest

N.East

South

Nationwide / diaspora

Nationwide · 1920s

Spoken by

Black America

$COLDINThe Record · cultural traction

▲ Dormant

101 yrs

ahead of the mainstream

40/100

peak cultural energy

Introduced to English by the culture — logged here before the mainstream caught on.

Cultural usage — the recordMainstream search interest

First used

1925

in the culture

Cultural energy indexed from documented usage, search interest, and citation frequency. The recorded date is the archive’s permanent point of record.

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Atlanta, GA

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Memphis, TN

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Citations & Sources

■

Bessie Smith, "Cold in Hand Blues" — recording · 1925

recorded

■

Zora Neale Hurston, Glossary of Harlem Slang — reference · 1942

published

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